Women and Peace in the Islamic World: Gender, Agency and Influence

Description

How realistic is the prospect of peace in the Muslim world? This question is the predominant focus for global analysis today, but its debate frequently ignores the cultural and social complexity of the Muslim world, reducing it into a system of states and select actors. This book addresses such a failing by exploring how the everyday interactions of women, in accordance with Islamic personal ethics, can offer the world a new interpretation of peace. In particular, it focuses on the women in Islamic societies, from Aceh to Bosnia, Morocco to Bangladesh, initiating a dialogue on the role of these women in peacemaking. This concentration upon the complex issues of the everyday both enables a detailed exploration of how people conceptualise peace and opens up new frameworks for conflict resolution. The discussions that emerge lead to a critical questioning of assumptions about peace as a state policy and cessation of violence. Drawing upon original research from different parts of the Middle East, North Africa and Asia, including Iran, India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Egypt and Sudan, the contributors offer a refreshing new look at Muslim women as peacemakers, challenging any assumptions of Islam as an inherently violent religion. Such a timely work provides new and important analyses on the role of Muslim women in forging new pathways of peace in the contemporary world. Front cover Author Title Copyright Dedication Contents Preface and Acknowledgements Introduction: Situating Peace, Islam and Women in the Everyday Part 1: Deliberations: Questioning the Normative 1. Ungendering Peace Talk 2. Dialogical Din and Everyday Acts of Peace: An Islamic Perspective 3. Negotiating Islamic Feminism: Echoes of Medieval Theological Disputes in Modern Islam Part 2: Interventions: Claiming Public Space 4. Women, Islam, Transnationalism: ‘Politics of Location’ and other Contentions in Women’s Organizing in Bangladesh 5. Agents of Peace: An Exploration of Three Acehnese Women Leaders 6. The Role of Muslim Women in Engendering Peace: Bila¯d al-Sudan (Sudan and Nigeria) Part 3: Formations: Engendering Peace Dialogues 7. In Pursuit of Peace: Muslim Women’s Involvement in Peace-Building 8. Crime and Reconciliation: Women’s Peace Initiatives in the Islamic Republic of Iran 9. Religion, Women and Peaceful Revolutions: Perspectives from the Arab Middle East Part 4: Relationships: Building Communities 10. Strangers, Friends and Peace: The Women’s World of Abdullah Hall, Aligarh Muslim University 11. The Living Monuments of Mourning: Struggles for Memory and Peace in Post-Revolutionary Iran 12. Merhametli Peace is Woman’s Peace: Religious and Cultural Practices of Compassion and Neighbourliness in Bosnia and Herzegovina Conclusion: Gender, Peace and War Epilogue: Dialoguing Peace Contributors Bibliography Index Back cover