Gender and Islam in Africa ─ Rights, Sexuality, and Law

Each year the Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in Africa (ISITA) at Northwestern University selects a theme and invites a scholar to organize a focused seminar and conference. Badran (Woodrow Wilson Center and Georgetown U.), a historian specializing in women and gender issues in Muslim societies, was chosen to lead investigation of gender. She invited scholars from Africa and elsewhere to participate in the Conference on Gender and Islam in Africa: Women's Discourses, Practices, and Empowerment. Papers from that conference, augmented with further research, offer thoughtful description of life stories and thought-provoking discourse. A sampling of topics: a social biography of a Sufi woman scholar in postcolonial Niger; deconstructing Islamic feminism (a look at Fatima Mernissi); changing conception of moral womanhood in Somali popular songs; video, gender, and Islam (Titanic in Kano); and family law reform in Mali. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)