INSIDE THE GENDER JIHAD pdf download

Inside The Gender Jihad Women’s Reform in Islam

INSIDE THE GENDER JIHAD

What makes this book particularly accessible is that it is semi-autobiographical – with remarkable candor and transparency the author walks the reader through her own intellectual and ethical struggles as a woman, as a mother, as an African-American, as an academic, as a Muslim, and, most importantly, as a human being.

Yet because of her awe-inspiring honesty, this is one author who resists categorization or any form of reductionism.

 Professor Wadud cannot comfortably be fitted with a label such as feminist, progressive, liberal, or Islamist.

The author does wage jihad against gender prejudices and other injustices, including what she describes as the erasure of human beings and their dignity.

 But with a level of frankness, conscientiousness, and self-consciousness that is rarely found, she is simultaneously critical not just of conservative or traditional Islam, but also of progressive Muslims, feminism, and even, when need is, herself.

 The author’s transparency and ability to engage and interrogate Islamic texts, and her fellow Muslims, as well as interrogate her thought and intellectual development, allows the reader to gain a unique insight into the very real challenges that confront modern Muslims.

 As a Muslim reading this book, I felt at different times variously engaged, enriched, enthralled, excited, upset, angered, and enraged.

At times, I found myself strongly disagreeing with some of the author’s arguments about Islamic law, but at all times I could not but feel a deep sense of respect for her integrity, courage, and honesty.

 This is hardly surprising in a book written by an author who does not mince words, engage in double-talk, or hide in ambiguities.

 But even more, I believe that this is an author who would not be happy with an uncritical and complacent reader and would be flattered by disagreement if it were the result of the serious and engaged reading of her text.

Professor Wadud is the living embodiment of someone who takes to heart the Qur’anic command to bear witness for God’s sake injustice even if it is against her loved ones or herself.

 In essence, this is a scholar who practices what she believes and preaches, and instead of theorizing from the cushioned safety of an ivory tower, she is down in the trenches fighting for what she believes and suffering enormously for it.

Professor Wadud does share with the reader some of her experiences from this frontline, but she does not emphasize the extent to which she has consistently suffered, and has been ostracized, attacked, and even persecuted for taking her religion very seriously – in fact, more seriously than most Muslims.

Consequently, she is better positioned than most scholars to understand and explain the realities of Islam as lived and experienced by its adherents.

 And, indeed, Professor Wadud’s book avoids the essentialisms, stereotypes, prejudices, apologetics, and sheer fantasies that fill so much of the literature on Islam that crowds the shelves of so many bookstores.