Muslim Women in War and Crisis

Representation and Reality

Edited by Faegheh Shirazi

University of Texas Press

Representing diverse cultural viewpoints, Muslim Women in War and Crisis collects an array of original essays that highlight the experiences and perspectives of Muslim women—their dreams and nightmares and their daily struggles—in times of tremendous social upheaval. Analyzing both how Muslim women have been represented and how they represent themselves, the authors draw on primary sources ranging from poetry and diaries to news reports and visual media. Topics include:

Peacebrokers in Indonesia
Exploitation in the Islamic Republic of Iran
Chechen women rebels
Fundamentalism in Afghanistan, from refugee camps to Kabul
Memoirs of Bengali Muslim women
The 7/7 London bombings, British Muslim women, and the media

Also exploring such images in the United States, Spain, the former Yugoslavia, Tunisia, Algeria, Lebanon, and Iraq, this collection offers a chorus of multidimensional voices that counter Islamophobia and destructive clichés. Encompassing the symbolic national and religious identities of Muslim women, this study goes beyond those facets to examine the realities of day-to-day existence in societies that seek scapegoats and do little to defend the victims of hate crimes. Enhancing their scholarly perspectives, many of the contributors (including the editor) have lived through the strife they analyze. This project taps into their firsthand experiences of war and deadly political oppression.

Muslim Women in War and Crisis is a unique book….In sum, this book is an important contribution to the growing body of literature addressing the representation of, and the challenges faced by, Muslim women in the post-Cold War period. In collecting and amalgamating such a remarkably diverse group of authors, Faegheh Shirazi has provided readers with different ways of understanding Muslim women in war and crisis. Journal of Islamic Studies

A native of Iran, Faegheh Shirazi is a professor in the Islamic Studies Program at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the author of Velvet Jihad: Muslim Women's Quiet Resistance to Islamic Fundamentalists.

Note from the Editor: Transliteration and Key Terms
Introduction (Faegheh Shirazi)
Part I: Central and South Asia
- Indonesia
  - Chapter 1. The Peace Brokers: Women of Aceh and Ambon (Sya`afatun Almirzanah)
- India
  - Chapter 2. Nation and Selfhood: Memoirs of Bengali Muslim Women (Shamita Basu)
- Afghanistan
  - Chapter 3. From Refugee Camp to Kabul: The Influence of Fundamentalism on Afghanistan's Politics and Women (Carol Mann)
  - Chapter 4. Gendered Aid Interventions and Afghan Women: Images versus Realities (Lina Abirafeh)
- Chechnya
  - Chapter 5. "Black Widows" in the New York Times: Images of Chechen Women Rebels (Sara Struckman)
Part II: The Middle East and North Africa
- Iran
  - Chapter 6. The Islamic Republic of Iran and Women's Images: Masters of Exploitation (Faegheh Shirazi)
- Iraq
  - Chapter 7. Widows' Doomsday: Women and War in the Poetry of Hassan al-Nassar (Abbas Kadhim)
  - Chapter 8. Images and Status: Visualizing Iraqi Women (Nada Shabout)
- Lebanon
  - Chapter 9. In Search of Identity: Hijab Recollections from West Beirut (Nada S. Fuleihan)
  - Chapter 10. Leadership of Lebanese Women in the Cedar Revolution (Rita Stephan)
- Tunisia and Algeria
  - Chapter 11. Images of Manipulation: Subversion of Women's Rights in the Maghreb (Nadia Marzouki)
Part III: Europe and the United States
- Former Yugoslavia
  - Chapter 12. Images of Women in Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Neighboring Countries, 1992-1995 (Zilka Spahić-Šiljak)
- Spain
  - Chapter 13. Muslim Women in the Spanish Press: A Subaltern Image (Ángeles Ramírez)
- Great Britain
  - Chapter 14. The 7/7 London Bombings and British Muslim Women: Media Representations, Mediated Realities (Fauzia Ahmad)
- United States
  - Chapter 15. Images of Muslim Women in Post-9/11 America (Omar Sacirbey)
Bibliography
List of Contributors
Index