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On Shifting Ground
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On Shifting Ground

Muslim Women in the Global Era
Edited by Fereshteh Nouraie-Simone

Foreword by Elizabeth Warnock Fernea. Introduction by Fereshteh Nouraie-Simone.

In Iran, hundreds of women are producing blogs, sharing their ideas in an Islamic republic that still limits women's expression. In Malaysia, members of Sisters in Islam are challenging sexist interpretations of Islamic theology and law. And throughout the Arabic-speaking world, satellite TV stations like Al-Jazeera have spawned "new Scheherazades"--women journalists and hosts whose voices have a powerful impact on the public discourse.

This unique, cutting-edge book of essays—the first to include work by 2003 Nobel Peace Prize-winner Shirin Ebadi—explodes Western stereotypes about Middle Eastern women. Here, writers from across the Islamic world describe how women are claiming their full voice in politics, religion, and culture, making powerful use of new media—and sometimes facing powerful backlash.

"[On Shifting Ground] highlights the positive implications of globalization for the Muslim world, especially Muslim women, a dimension usually ignored."

—Nayereh Tohidi, California State University, Northridge and Center for Near Eastern Studies at UCLA

"[These] well-known Muslim women . . . question conventional understandings of what is good for women by paying attention to who is speaking, where, and for whom. . . . At a time when Islam and Muslims are under siege, writings such as these provide hope."

—Miriam Cooke, author of Women Claim Islam: Creating Islamic Feminism through Literature

"[This] volume . . . captures the vitality and diversity of the struggles for women's human rights in the Muslim world. The authors show that the outcomes need not be Western or secular, as women attempt to reshape religion and culture."

—Beth Baron, author of Egypt as a Woman: Nationalism, Gender, and Politics

"This book contains many thoughtful, highly relevant, and frequently brilliant essays on the contemporary ideas, organization, activities, and agency of Muslim women in several countries. . . . [It] is extremely well written and . . . exciting to read."

—Nikki Keddie, professor emerita of Middle Eastern and Iranian history, UCLA