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Women in Islam and the Middle East

Women in Islam and the Middle East
Edited by Ruth Roded
IB Tauris 2008  Pp293


Much of the lively and often heated debate on the role of women in Islam and Middle Eastern society, the cover of the book points out,  is grounded in different readings of the primary Arabic, Persian, Turkish and other sources and historical precedents. These key texts remain inaccessible to English-speaking readers.

Ruth Rodel, a  senior lecturer in the history of Islam and the Middle East at Institute of African and Asian Studies in  Jerusalem  fills this gap. She wrote the book primarily for undergraduate and graduate students but her labour of love will be of interest to anyone who wants go beyond the Mullah- Maulvi centric headlines in these days when it has become fashionable to be a critic of Islamist practices and precepts. Her thesis is that the role of women in Islam is not a much neglected subject as some scholars would have us believe. Over long centuries, she says, there have been discussions and debates on proper dress for a devout Muslim  woman in public, her economic rights, her aspiration for political positions of power, and her role as a litigant, legal expert and witness.

But general perception is that Muslim women particularly in feudal and tribal societies of Pakistan are worse off than the women of other religions. Even casual readers of online Pakistani dailies ill- treatment of women and customs like honour killings are not exclusive to Pakistan’s Muslim society.

These customs and traditions are very much in practice even in areas close to Delhi in Haryana.  That prompts the conclusion that place of women in a society has much less to do with religion though religion offers a good excuse to cover the sense of guilt the practitioners of atrocities on women suffer from.

This is not to say that the problem of maltreatment of Muslim women doesn’t deserve separate case study and demands  follow-up action  for social reform. Spread of education and increasing levels of literacy are the anti-dote besides enlightened  public opinion and media support. Mukhtaran  Mai’s fight against injustice is a case in point. Unfortunately, most Muslim societies are not paying attention to education, and as a result the younger generation is increasingly becoming a captive to the traditional schooling in Madrasas where an half educated person teaches an uneducated one.

The author draws her strength from historical facts. She  brings readers face to face with material concerning women in Islam from a wide range of sources, dating from the early Islamic period to the present day, and talks Khadija, Ayesha, Fatima, Zainab, and  Hind, the wife of Abu Sufiyan and mother of Muawiya, who fought in the battle of Uhud.

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