Feminism and Islam: Legal and Literary Perspectives

In an age when Western feminism is constantly undergoing redefinition, this book offers to the worldwide debate sixteen authoritative contributions from the surprising setting of Muslim countries. These studies address the feminist modes of expression in relation to, or as a challenge to, Islamic laws and traditions. The book shows how women have become more actively involved not only in learning their rights under the Shari’a, but in rereading the law in order to improve their status and their fight to gain more equality and freedom. As the book illustrates, this is an age in which we will see an increasing number of women scholars in Islamic law.

Mai Yamani, the first Saudi Arabian woman to earn a doctorate degree from the University of Oxford, has been lecturing extensively in Europe and the USA on Middle Eastern life, especially that of Muslim women, since her first position as lecturer in Sociology at King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah in 1981. She is a Research Fellow in the Middle East Programme at Chatham House, and a Research Associate at the Centre of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

Paperback • 235 mm x 159 mm • ISBN 9780863722158 • 400 pages • £12.95

Hardback • 235 mm x 159 mm • ISBN 9780863722035 • 400 pages • £3.00