Women and Islam

Islamic ideas about women and their role in society spark considerable debate both in the western world and in the Islamic world. Despite the popular attention surrounding middle eastern attitudes toward women, there has been little systematic study of the statements regarding women in the Qur’an. This volume seeks to move away from the oppositional positions taken by Western and Muslim women and to provide a clear understanding of the possibilities and the limits that the process of reconstruction and reinterpretation of Islamic dictum can and does present for progress of women in Islamist countries. The book seeks to provide a step in the right direction by looking at the recent decades of struggle by Islamist women in the Islam and Islamist women in that country in pursuit of common goals.