Islam and Gender
Bibliography
General
Kassam, Zayn. “Gender” in Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World.
Edited by Richard Martin. New York: Tompson-Gale, 2004: 265273.
Lawrence, Bruce. Shattering the Myth: Islam Beyond Violence. Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1998.
 Useful for understanding different types of Islamic governments in
operation today
Wheeler, Brannon. “Body, Significance of” in Encyclopedia of Islam and
the Muslim World. Edited by Richard Martin. New York: TompsonGale, 2004: 110-111.
Homosexuality
Kahn, Badruddin. “Not-so-Gay Life in Pakistan in the 1980’s and
1990’s” in Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature.
Edited by Stephen Murray and Will Roscoe. New York: New York
Univerisity Press, 1997: 275-296.
Lagrange, Frederic. “Male Homosexuality in Modern Arabic Literature” in
Imagined Masculinities: Male Identity and Culture in the Modern
Middle East. Edited by Mai Ghoussoub and Emma Sinclair-Webb.
London: Saqi Books, 1999: 169-198.
Mujitaba, Hasan. “The Other Side of Midnight: Pakistani Male
Prostitutes” in Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and
Literature. Edited by Stephen Murray and Will Roscoe. New York:
New York Univerisity Press, 1997: 267-274.
Murray, Stephan. “The Will Not to Know: Islamic Accomodations of Male
Homosexuality” in Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and
Literature. Edited by Stephen Murray and Will Roscoe. New York:
New York Univerisity Press, 1997: 14-54.
 Interesting look into how family structures accommodate extramarital relationships in Muslim communities
Rowan, Everett. “Homosexuality” in Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim
World. Edited by Richard Martin. New York: Tompson-Gale, 2004:
316-317.
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Schimmel, Annemarie. “Eros- heavenly and not-so-heavenly- in Sufi
Literature and Life” in Society and the Sexes in Medieval Islam.
Edited by Afaf Lufti Al-Sayyid Marsot. Malibu, CA: Udenda, 1979:
119-142.
Sofer, Jehoeda. “Sodomy in the Law of Muslim States” in Sexuality and
Eroticism among Males in Moslem [sic] Societies. Edited by Arno
Schmitt and Jehoeda Sofer. New York: Harrington Park, 1992:
131-150.
Wafer, Jim. “Muhammad and Male Homosexuality” in Sexuality and
Eroticism among Males in Moslem [sic] Societies. Edited by Arno
Schmitt and Jehoeda Sofer. New York: Harrington Park, 1992: 8796.
Masculinity
Farhi, Moris, “Lentils in Paradise” in Imagined Masculinities: Male
Identity and Culture in the Modern Middle East. Edited by Mai
Ghoussoub and Emma Sinclair-Webb. London: Saqi Books, 1999:
251-262.
 Autobiographical story (by a Jewish man who grew up in a Muslim
culture) of coming to age as reflected by attending public baths.
Ghoussoub, Mai. “Chewing Gum, Insatiable Women and Foreign
Enemies: Male Fears and the Arab Media” in Imagined
Masculinities: Male Identity and Culture in the Modern Middle East.
Edited by Mai Ghoussoub and Emma Sinclair-Webb. London: Saqi
Books, 1999: 227-235.
 Very entertaining story of a frightening week in the life of men in
Egypt due to a tabloid story about an Israeli chewing gum weapon
that rendered women insatiable and men impotent.
Hermansen, Marcia. “Masculinities” in Encyclopedia of Islam and the
Muslim World. Edited by Richard Martin. New York: TompsonGale, 2004: 436.
Kandiyoti, Deniz. “The Paradoxes of Masculinity: Some Thoughts on
Segregated Societies” in Dislocating Masculinity: Comparative
Ethnographies. Edited by Andrea Cornwall and Nancy Lindisfarne.
New York and London: Routledge, 1994.
Peteet, Julie. “Male Gender and Rituals of Resistance in the Palestinian
Intifada: A Cultural Politics of Violence” in Imagined Masculinities:
Male Identity and Culture in the Modern Middle East. Edited by Mai
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Ghoussoub and Emma Sinclair-Webb. London: Saqi Books, 1999:
103-126.
Femininity
Ahmed, Leila. Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern
Debate. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992.
 Best book on the subject I have found, easy to read, and ideal for an
undergraduate class. Can use specific chapters if the whole book is
too much, but the whole book is do-able.
Anwar, Ghazala. “Feminism” in Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim
World. Edited by Richard Martin. New York: Tompson-Gale, 2004:
256-258.
Bahramitash, Roksana. “The War on Terror, Feminist Orientalism and
Orientalist Feminism: Case Studies of Two North American
Bestsellers.” Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies 14.2 (2005):
221-235.
Cooke, Miriam. Women Claim Islam. New York and London: Routledge,
2001.
 Gives good case studies, a little disjointed as a whole.
Djebar, Assia. Women of Islam. London: Abruna, 1961.
 Dated now, but has pictures of Muslim women from a variety of
countries that could be effective in dispelling assumptions of how
Muslim women dress.
Fernea, Robert. “Gender, Sexuality and Patriarchy in Modern Egypt.”
Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies 12.2 (2003): 141-153.
Jiwani, Yasmin. “Gendering Terror: Representations of the Orientalized
Body in Quebec’s Post-September 11 English-Language Press.”
Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Sudies 13.3 (2004): 265-291.
 For anyone brave enough to tackle 9/11 who wants to look at
women’s issues too.
Kalinock, Sabine. “Between Party and Devotion: Mowludi of Tehran
Women.” Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies 12.2 (2003): 173187.
 Discusses women’s participation in Shia rituals in Iran.
Living Islam Out Loud: American Muslim Women Speak. Edited by
Saleemah Abdul-Ghafur. Boston: Beacon Press, 2005.
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
Very recent collection of essays, stories, and poetry. Brings the
situations of Muslim women much closer to home, could be very
useful in classroom setting.
Mack, Beverley and Jean Boyd. One Woman’s Jihad: Nana Asma’u,
Scholar and Scribe. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000.
 Biography of an early 19th century Muslim woman in West Africa of
the Sufi order Qadiriyya.
Messaoudi, Khalida. Unbowed: An Algerian Woman Confronts Islamic
Fundamentalism (Interviews with Elisabeth Schemla). Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995.
 Fascinating interview with highly educated Berber Muslim woman
actively working for women’s right in Algeria. She has been under a
death sentence since 1993 for her criticism of Algeria’s government.
Mernissi, Fatima. The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of
Women’s Rights in Islam. Translated by Mary Jo Lakeland.
Reading, MA: Perseus, 1991.
 A good example for undergraduates of an observant Muslim woman
seeking what she considers the gender-inclusive Islam intended by
Muhammad using Islam’s own texts.
------------. The Forgotten Queens of Islam. Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press, 1993.
 Case studies of Muslim women in positions of power and leadership
in a variety of case studies. Individual parts could be used with
success in discussing specific dynasties as examples.
Mohanty, Chandra. “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and
Colonial Discourses.” Feminist Review 30 (1988): 61-88.
 Good introduction to the relevant complications for students new to
feminism, colonialism, etc.
Perry, Mary Elizabeth. The Handless Maiden. Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 2005.
 Discussion of forced conversion of Muslims in Spain.
Saadawi, Nawal. Love in the Kingdom of Oil. London: Saqi, 2001.
-----------A Daughter of Isis: The Autobiography of Nawal El Saadawi.
London: Zed, 1999.
 Only the early years, but an interesting lens through which to view
events in Egypt in the mid-20th century.
----------- The Innocence of the Devil. London: Metheun, 1994.
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
This is the book for which Saadawi was put on a death list. Her
writing is controversial, but fascinating.
----------- God Dies by the Nile. London: Zed, 1985.
Salhi, Zahia Smail. “The Wounded Smile: Women, Politics, and the
Culture of Betrayal.” Critique 18 (2001): 101-119.
 Interesting article on a play performed in Algeria about women’s
participation in and subsequent disappointment with post-colonial
Algeria
Seymour-Jorn, Caroline. “View from the Margin: Writer Ni’mat al-Bihiri
on Gender Issues in Egypt”. Critique: Critical Middle Eastern
Studies 13.1 (2004): 77-95.
 Identifies poverty as a problem inevitably entwined with women’s
rights as few others acknowledge.
Spellberg, Denise. Politics, Gender, and the Islamic Past: The Legacy of
‘A’isha bint Abi Bakr. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.
 Good discussion of the first years of Islam through the character of
Islam. Useful in a discussion of how later figures obscured
prominent women in Muhammad’s inner circle.
Wadud, Amina. Qur’an and Women: Rereading the Sacred Text from a
Woman’s Perspective. New York: Oxford University Press: 1999.
 Another good example of a devout woman looking within Islam for
solutions to gendered problems. Only 100 pages, could easily be
incorporated in a classroom setting as a way of problematizing the
standard interpretation of Qur’anic passages.
Windows of Faith: Muslim Women Scholar-Activists in North America.
Edited by Gisela Webb. New York: Syracuse University Press,
2000.
 Collection of Essays addressing Qur’an, Law, Spirituality and
Activism.
Women in Middle Eastern History: Shifting Boundaries in Sex and Gender.
Edited by Nikki Keddie and Beth Baron. New York: Yale
Univerisity Press, 1991.
 Collection of essays ranging from the formation of Islam through the
modern period. A little dated at this point as far as the modern
period essays, but very useful. Particularly the second chapter by
Deniz Kandiyoti.
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