Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book highlights one woman and incorporates experiences, commentary, and testimonies of same-faith women to illustrate the larger context. It describes the Jewish community's reaction, sexual abuse of other Jewish women, including female clergy and communal efforts thus far to create positive change. The book then introduces Haleema Bharoocha and other Muslim women who struggled to call out Muslim men's bad behavior despite their manipulations of Islam to blame women for what befalls them and discusses the legacy of September 11th and Islamophobia. It also features Ruth Everhart, a white Christian woman who changed her faith community, details Evangelical Christian women's experiences and discusses how race impacts the ways Christian women of color experience sexual misconduct and abuse of power.