Do Muslim Women need saving?
The author studies individual lives that she has personally known to explore the nuances that come with being a Muslim woman different from the singular category of women. The characters she analyses in the introduction of this book are drawn from the Arab world, and most are from the rural communities in Egypt. These examples from different parts of the Muslim world illustrate the variety of situations in which Muslim women find themselves, the sorts of debates and strategies they engage, and how frequently their experiences are misunderstood and the complexities of their situations ignored. Indeed, there is oppression. However, this oppression comes from the hand of the state and not from the religion they follow.
Zaynab a hard-working woman in Egypt and the author’s aunt a refugee from Palestine have faced several hardships that have been at least in some part colored by gender. However, both threw themselves into making good lives for their children, living for and through them. The author’s aunt’s losses anguished her; she tried to manage this grief through her faith in God. Zaynab too was consumed by the struggles and failings of her sons, by her eldest daughter’s loneliness, and by her youngest daughter’s diabetes. Zaynab’s trust in God gives her strength and perspective and her not for one moment blamed her faith as the reason of the turmoil but the government in Egypt that had been in power for the last 30 years that did not focus on education, employment, health or development but rather often abused its own power to make their lives worse. The author talks about feminism and the meddling of the west trying to save these oppressed as trying to fit Muslim women into the narratives they have written for them which at times these women do not accept on their own accord.
The author studies individual lives that she has personally known to explore the nuances that come with being a Muslim woman different from the singular category of women. The characters she analyses in the introduction of this book are drawn from the Arab world, and most are from the rural communities in Egypt. These examples from different parts of the Muslim world illustrate the variety of situations in which Muslim women find themselves, the sorts of debates and strategies they engage, and how frequently their experiences are misunderstood and the complexities of their situations ignored. Indeed, there is oppression. However, this oppression comes from the hand of the state and not from the religion they follow.
Zaynab a hard-working woman in Egypt and the author’s aunt a refugee from Palestine have faced several hardships that have been at least in some part colored by gender. However, both threw themselves into making good lives for their children, living for and through them. The author’s aunt’s losses anguished her; she tried to manage this grief through her faith in God. Zaynab too was consumed by the struggles and failings of her sons, by her eldest daughter’s loneliness, and by her youngest daughter’s diabetes. Zaynab’s trust in God gives her strength and perspective and her not for one moment blamed her faith as the reason of the turmoil but the government in Egypt that had been in power for the last 30 years that did not focus on education, employment, health or development but rather often abused its own power to make their lives worse. The author talks about feminism and the meddling of the west trying to save these oppressed as trying to fit Muslim women into the narratives they have written for them which at times these women do not accept on their own accord.
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