Suchergebnisse

Indian Muslim women are subject to the interface between gender and community within the Indian social, political and economic context. Stereotypes of Muslim Women, entrenched by the trinity of multiple marriages, triple talaq and Purdah have held them hostage for so long that they have become difficult to dislodge. The path-breaking decision of the Supreme Court upholding the constitutional validity of the controversial Muslim Women's Act is an interesting study of the issue of gender justice. The present article would try to locate crucial issue relating to divorce and maintenance (i.e. Muslim Women's Act 1986) that need to be foregrounded to galvanise Muslim Women's struggle for justice and equality and discuss various possibilities as well as hurdles in the path of evolving alternative discourses. Women had to fight every inch of the way due to the ambiguities caused by callous drafting. The Act provided ample scope to husbands to exploit the situation which led to protracted litigation beneficial to husbands and a nightmare to women. But women withstood the ordeal with courage and determination, with patience and perseverance. After a decade and a half, the end result of this persistent struggle are clearly visible. The positive interpretations have ushered new era of protection of rights within the established principal of Muslim law, but still many changes in MPL is yet to come. Now is the right time for Muslim intelligentsia to come up to campaign for their womenfolk of their basic right to survival.

A review essay on books by: Nikki R. Keddie & Beth Baron (Eds), Women in Middle East History: Shifting Boundaries in Sex and Gender (New Haven, CT: Yale U Press, 1991); Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam (New Haven, CT: Yale U Press, 1992; & Deniz Kadiyoti (Ed), Women, Islam and the State (London: Macmillan Press, 1991 [see listings in IRPS No. 76]. The Keddie & Baron collection provides a historical analysis of the impact of laws, mores, norms, & cultural practices in the Middle East on the status of women. The volume addresses such topics as the negative impact on women's public position of interpretations of Ayisha's defeat in the battle of Badare to the gradual liberation of women in contemporary Egypt. Ahmed examines the social construction of gender in Middle Eastern countries through comparative analysis of the discourses & patterns of practices in different societies. Islam is portrayed as exacerbating an erosion of women's rights begun by the expansion of Mesopotamia, Greece, & Christianity into the region. Women's gains in obtaining informal education, maintaining familial property, & participating in the labor market are discussed. The Kadiyoti edition work takes a less historical & broader view, emphasizing Middle Eastern women in the twentieth century in regions ranging from Yemen to Pakistan. The historical role of Islam in determining the position of women, the emergence of feminism, & the redefinition of new Islam alternatives are discussed. D. Generoli

Intro -- Contents -- Introduction: Rights and Lives -- 1. Do Muslim Women (Still) Need Saving? -- 2. The New Common Sense -- 3. Authorizing Moral Crusades -- 4. Seductions of the "Honor Crime" -- 5. The Social Life of Muslim Women's Rights -- 6. An Anthropologist in the Territory of Rights -- Conclusion: Registers of Humanity -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Acknowledgments -- Index.