Feminism, Tradition, and Change in Contemporary Islam: Negotiating Islamic Law and Gender

In her rigorous debut, Haqqani, an assistant professor of Islamic studies at Mercer University, uses gender issues as a lens through which to explore how Muslim Americans “decide when past Islamic legal precedents are open to renegotiation.” Drawing on interviews with American Muslims in Austin, Tex., she finds that views on such issues as female inheritance and the validity of Muslim women’s interfaith marriages are complex and varied, and sometimes reveal how different parts of the Muslim world are at odds. For example, many lay Muslims reject the Quran’s inheritance rules—namely, that daughters receive half the inheritance their brothers get—still embraced by the scholarly community, while current prohibitions on female-led mixed prayer mostly mirror premodern viewpoints (though some respondents expressed a desire for change). Haqqani concludes that a “mainstream Islam” does not exist—scholars and laity have been disagreeing (with themselves and one another) for centuries, shaping a flexible tradition of legal interpretation that relies on shifting social contexts, historical realities, and identity. She concludes with a hopeful call for Muslim women and the Islamic community to challenge Islam’s “gendered foundation” with the confidence that they’re not “transgressing against an unassailable tradition” but rather embracing its innate fluidity. Scrupulously researched and analyzed, this is an excellent resource for scholars of Islamic and gender studies. (Nov.)