A Most Masculine State

This book examines the “plight” of women and gender relations in an attemptto give voice to an excluded and marginalized group in the closed and conservativesociety of Saudi Arabia (pp. 1, 2). Al-Rashid problematizes the“woman question,” designating it as both a state and a social problem that defiesconsensus regarding its causes and solutions, where giving voice becomesthe first step toward reclaiming denied rights. She contextualizes her study bylooking at the historical roots and “interconnection between gender, politics,and religion that shapes and perpetuates the persistent exclusion of Saudiwomen” (p. 3). By so doing, Al-Rashid essentially depicts the roots of this“extreme form of gender inequality” as structural and related to the complexrelationship between the Saudi state and the Wahhabi religious establishment.This relationship, which takes the form of religious nationalism, provided fora narrow definition and interpretation of just who was entitled to belong to the pious community. Narrow interpretations of rituals and jurisprudence, aswell as how gender relations are to be conducted or acquire validity, both createdand exacerbated the social and religious boundaries within Saudi societyand between it and other Muslim cultural interpretations ...