Dossier Articles

Dossier 20: Islam is the Solution: Jordanian Islamists and the dilemma of the modern women

During the past decade, the issue of gender relations and women’s conduct and dress has been occupying an increasingly prominent place in the discourse of Islamist movements.

Dossier 20: A Woman's Place in the Nation: Analyzing the Discourse of the ‘Nation of Islam’

“That was an army of Black men standing in front of me...They loved the message and they loved the Messenger,”
Minister Louis Farrakhan on the Million Man March
(Arizona Republic, 1996: 6)

“No march, movement or agenda that defines manhood in the narrowest terms and seeks to make women lesser partners...can be considered a positive step,”
Angela Davis on the Million Man March
(Pooley, E “To The Beat of His Drum” Time, Vol 143, No.

Dossier 17: The Shahrur Phenomenon: A Liberal Islamic Voice from Syria

In the early I990s the Arab world has witnessed an extraordinary publishing phenomenon. An 800 page book on Islam, Al-kitab wa’lqur’an: qira’a mu’asira (The Book and the Qur’an: a contemporary reading), was first published by the Ahali Publishing House Damascus in 1990. The book challenges a millennium of Islamic tradition. It is highly critical of the social, political and intellectual state of contemporary Arab countries. The author has been denounced as ‘an enemy of Islam’ and as ‘a Western and Zionist agent’. To date eleven other books have been written attacking his theses.

Dossier 17: The Muted Voices of Women Interpreters

There are few women interpreters in the history of Islam because women are seen to be the subject of the Islamic shari’a and not its legislators. Yet even the few interpreters who have appeared during the long history of Islam have been kept at the periphery, their views never allowed to influence Islamic legislation. Moreover, even men interpreters who were open-minded about women were marginalized and, in some cases, found their authority questioned.

Dossier 17: Women’s Rights in the Current Political Backdrop of Afghanistan

Introduction:

Violence against women is one of the sharp indicators of the subordinate position of women in the society. Violence exists in different forms, different levels from personal to physical violence to structural violence, justified by religion, culture and laws. Most of the steps taken from the protection of women against violence tend in addressing the women rather than men. These steps don’t enforce laws or take action against men.

The women issues are political issues. The social paradigms don’t recognize this.

Dossier 18: The All-American Queer Pakistani Girl: The dilemma of being between cultures

I don't know if my grandmother is dead or alive. I can't remember the last time I saw her. It must have been at least ten years ago when I was in Pakistan for an extended visit. She was my only living grandparent and her health was beginning to fail her. Every once in a while, I think she's probably dead and no one bothered to tell me.

I'm completely out of touch with my Pakistani life.

Dossier 18: Customary Practices Among Muslims in Gomia, Bihar

Background

Bihar is among the most socially and economically backward states in India. Social inequality in Bihar is amply visible. In order to illustrate the socio-economic context within which underprivileged groups (including Muslim communities) exist in Bihar, it is necessary to highlight a few statistics from the state. While there does not exist a direct causal relationship between customary practice and socio-economic conditions, both are also not mutually exclusive.

Dossier 18: Gender Politics and Islamization in Sudan

Introduction

This research is an examination of the relationship of the Sudanese state to issues of gender, religion and class.[1] It is one component of my interest in the mechanisms the state employs for achieving both political and cultural hegemony.

Dossier 18: Lihaf* (The Quilt)

Editor’s note: This famous short story by the late Ismat Chugtai (1915-1991) was written in 1941 and banned by the then State Government on charges of obscenity. Ismat Chugtai challenged this decision and won her law suit.

Dossier 18: SOS Algeria - Women’s Human Rights Under Siege

The current violence in Algeria is both tragic and deeply alarming in its scope and intensity to all observers, but it is especially heartbreaking for those who have followed the country's history for the last 40 years. Algeria was once a symbol of progressive anti-colonial struggle which brought women and men together to fight for their basic human rights. Djamila Bouhired and the other women fighters in the war of national liberation became the international symbols of Algeria's freedom struggle and were revered throughout the Arab World.