Women Claim Islam

This book embarks on a sojourn into the stories and autobiographies of Arabwomen writers who "claim Islam" by "writing themselves into the historyof the twentieth century." Being situated outside their nations' historical narratives,Cooke examines the literary practices of Arab Muslim women whohave entered into global political discourses as vibrant public intellectuals,rather than as history's invisible subtext. According to her, Arab Muslimwomen "have been left out of history, out of the War Story, out of the narrativesof emigration and exile, out of the physical and hermeneutical spacesof religion." Thus Muslim women intellectuals and writers are challengingthe erasures of their experiences in the public and discursive spaces ofnation, community, and faith.Cooke argues that women have become the "symbolic center" in societiesincreasingly dominated by Islamic discourse. But while this discoursegives "unprecedented importance to women," it also centers them as pivotalto the "virtuous Muslim community" and thereby dictates constricting rulesfor their "appropriate behavior." This has resulted in a preoccupation withregulating and policing women's bodies (clearly evident in TalibanizedAfghanistan). Yet at the same time, shifting women's experiences from themargins to the center of discursive focus has allowed their voices to emergein new ways. 1n many cases, this stakes their claim to a more empoweringIslamic identity. This movement has allowed Muslim women writers andintellectuals to develop a gendered Islamic epistemology. According toCooke, these women "do not challenge the sacrality of the Qur'an, but theydo examine the temporality of its interpretations." ...