Shattering the Stereotypes: Muslim Women Speak Out (review)

Shattering the Stereotypes: Muslim Women Speak Out is a collection of academic and non-academic pieces written by Muslim women in the United States and addresses the most controversial questions surrounding Muslim women post-9/11. In the introduction, Afzal-Khan lays out her two goals: to bring together and juxtapose the diverse views of Muslim women despite differences between their outlooks, histories, and cultures, and to enlighten readers about diversities between Muslim women and reveal complexities in order to challenge the monolithic image of Muslim women constructed and institutionalized as the body of knowledge in the West.

Shattering the Stereotypes is an anthology, unlike many others on the topic of Muslim women, and is divided into six parts. In the first, "Non-fiction," several non-academic and academic essays critically analyze the general stereotyping of Muslims as fundamentalist and terrorist and Muslim women as oppressed victims. The book's claim is that this stereotyping has created a stronger dichotomy of "us" against "them," legitimizing the Judeo-Christian policies of carrying the burden of "civilization" against "barbarian" Muslims through the war on terror and the emancipation of Muslim women from their Islamic bondage.

The second section, "Poetry," includes poems reflecting the pain, anguish, and fears about war, social injustice, and terrorism within the context of Zionism, imperialism, and fundamentalism, before and after 9/11. The third section, "Journalism," is written by Muslim women journalists and reporters who discuss the misrepresentation of Islam and Muslims in the media and counter some of the stereotypes and images about Muslims and Muslim women. They advocate how responsible journalists can work toward enlightening people about Islam and establishing a dialogue between Muslims and non-Muslims.

In the fourth section, "Religious Discourse," American Muslim feminists discuss the Qur'anic view of women, their financial rights, their right to work, and inheritance. The authors clarify the differences between cultural norms and Islamic law. To understand women's rights in Islam, one must refer to the Qur'an and the Hadith rather than shari'a. The interpretation is subject to cultural and pedagogical differences and may present cultural norms rather than Islamic norms.

"Fiction" reflects the fears of American Muslim women in a post-9/11 environment. Targeted for hate crimes, labeled terrorists, and isolated from the mainstream and victimized by the US legal system, they are fearful and terrorized. "Fiction" also discusses contradictions between Islamic rules and what is seen as the American lifestyle. A young Pakistani woman struggles with herself because she is breaking cultural rules by having a premarital affair and lying about it to her family; she also has to lie about her nationality and religion when an "American" asks her where she is from. This piece is followed by a short story about a Muslim woman on an aid mission in Sarajevo after the Serb/Bosnian war. She feels welcome and has a sense of belonging and cannot tell the difference between Muslims and Christians, Serbs and Bosnians. She looks at the destruction that war brought about and asks, "Why war?"

The sixth section contains plays written by women with diverse ethnic, ideological, and religious backgrounds. Common themes include the oppression of women, either through wars and/or systems of patriarchy, and their reactions within the context of religion, culture, and politics. One play shows the suffering of Afghan women during the Taliban's patriarchal regime and the terrors of war inflicted upon them by superpowers. In another play, a discussion among American-Pakistani women reveals the contradictions between American and Pakistani cultures. The last play, about one of the most controversial feminist woman poets in the recent history of Iran, Furugh Farrukhzad, shows the gender, class, and political oppressions during her time in Iran.

Shattering the Stereotypes truly shatters the stereotypes and the monolithic images of Muslim women as constructed in the discourse of modernity. All contributors (but one) are Muslim women and have written on topics relating to Muslim women. A comprehensive look at the...