ABSTRACT

The aftermath of 9/11 has brought renewed attention to Islam and the place of women within Muslim societies, generating much scholarly discourse about the status of women and their rights in Muslim countries across the Middle East and North Africa. While most scholarly studies on gender and Islam (see Abu-Lughod, 1998, 2013; Ahmed, 1992, 2011; Mahmoud, 2004) have attempted “to particularize, and to ground in practice, place, class, and time the experiences of women and the dynamics of gender” (Abu-Lughod, 1998, p. 22), the popular social imaginary of Muslim women has remained within the Western “regime of truth” that constructs Islam as antithetical and opposed to gender justice. We believe that women’s experiences and their social status in the Middle East need to be seen within their historical specificity and against universalizing discourses of Islam, patriarchy, and “saving” Muslim women.