ZULEIKHA, who was trained as a pianist in her hometown of Lahore, Pakistan, arrives in Irving, Texas after her arranged marriage to ISKANDER, but finds it difficult to get accustomed to the appurtenances, encumbrances, and perquisites of the middle-class housewife lifestyle. Despite giving birth to a son, WASIM, she quickly falls out of love with her dutiful but straight-laced husband. She begins giving private lessons, and commences an affair with PATRICK, a transplanted Canadian who is trapped in his own loveless marriage. When she gets pregnant, Zuleikha is convinced the child belongs to her husband. She ends her affair with Patrick, but Iskander finds out about it anyway. The ensuing confrontation between Zuleikha and Iskander turns into a physical altercation, during which Zuleikha, having fallen to the floor, is unable to see if Iskander stomps on her belly, or falls on her by accident as he will later claim. The trauma results in a miscarriage. The unusual set of circumstances surrounding this violent episode serves as the backdrop for the rest of the story, by catapulting this otherwise nondescript couple into the glare of the public eye. Iskander is arrested and charged with feticide, and he faces a long prison sentence under Texas law. A court order prohibits him from contacting Zuleikha and Wasim, who are taken to a shelter for Muslim women and children. There, the other domestic abuse victims view Zuleikha as someone who "had it coming" because of her infidelity, and are therefore openly hostile to her. The shelter's director, a woman named REZA, is beholden to wealthy Muslim donors, and therefore arranges for Zuleikha to meet with members of a highly controversial Islamic tribunal. Zuleikha is pressured to forgive her husband and testify in his favor, so as not draw further negative attention to the Muslim community. JANE, the District Attorney, on the other hand, initially plays nice with Zuleikha and informs her that she will devote any and all available resources in the prosecution of Iskander. When Zuleikha can't get her story straight and hesitates about testifying against her husband, however, Jane, too, turns against her. Zuleikha discovers that the DA has been caught hiding her own secrets and now faces a public confidence crisis of her own. Zuleikha comes to realize that Jane's reasons for being so gung-ho about winning Iskander's conviction have as much to do with re-endearing herself to her electorate as with justice. Zuleikha thus finds herself at the epicenter of a political firestorm fueled by winds of anti-Muslim hysteria, with different people trying to use her situation to their own advantage. When Wasim gets in a scuffle at the shelter and has to be taken to a clinic, she panics and contacts Iskander against her better judgment. Husband and wife finally confront each other while Wasim is being treated. Iskander claims to still love Zuleikha and begs her to take him back so that they and their son can resume their prior family life. But Zuleikha realizes that even if Iskander is sincere and not merely seeking reconciliation in order to avoid a harsh prison sentence, she will never be able to forgive him, let alone love him and live with him again. She comes to accept the fact that she has no control over Iskander's fate in court, and can only move forward by testifying truthfully and trying to do what is best for her and her son. While waiting for the trial to begin, she gains admission in a summer training program for piano instructors and begins the next phase of her life.

Chi, Zeyu. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 91-93). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter One --- Background of the Research and its Main Theoretical Questions --- p.4 / Chapter Chapter Two --- Liberating or Burdensome? Case Study of the Veiled --- p.36 / Chapter Chapter Three --- Fitna and the Universal Norms of Practical Reason --- p.46 / Chapter Chapter Four --- The Ontological Significance of Veiling --- p.67 / Conclusion --- p.83 / Bibliography --- p.91

The subject and the scope of this study are the challenges faced by Muslim women in contemporary societies as presented by the four prominent authors: Leila Ahmed, Elizabeth Fernea, Fatima Mernissi and Amina Wadud. The methodology applied to the literary analysis is the feminist-qualitative research approach in religious studies with specific reference to Islamic feminist studies. Many Muslim women scholars criticise the study of Third World women as objects of study-cases who are rarely heeded as serious scholars. Misconceptions about Islam and Muslim women are common in Western society. Previous studies have not dealt with the issue satisfactorily and failed to provide a holistic picture. The challenges faced by Muslim women have been interpreted against a Western feminist framework, thus causing more harm than good. The resultant predicament is the subject of this study in which Muslim women’s own attitudes and responses to their present circumstances and future prospects are explored. How and why Muslim women are challenged? How do they envisage the resolution of these challenges? The purpose of this study is to provide a framework that can give an adequate account of challenges as seen by Muslim women and to evaluate strategies that can provide suitable solutions to these challenges. Firstly, an objective Giele/Smock/Engineer framework was developed with reference to the most pressing challenges (articulated in well-documented definitions and descriptions) faced by Muslim women in contemporary societies. These key issues of women’s rights on political participation, education, work, family, and social participation were discussed and analysed in the light of this women-centred approach with specific reference to the writings of four prominent women authors: Leila Ahmed, Elizabeth Fernea, Fatima Mernissi and Amina Wadud. Each author has brought her own particular perspective and area of expertise into the discussion – sometimes arguing among with the other authors in a virtual ‘roundtable’ discussion; at times joining hands in mutual agreement. Finally, Muslim women’s struggle against injustice was subjected to critical scrutiny with particular attention to common strategies and solutions that the four authors have used and developed in the light of the modern debate. It is in the latter discussion that the study reached its ultimate goal by determining how the challenges have been met. Moreover, Islamic feminism was assessed to determine how it related to and coped with social change and how effective it has been in seeking to assert rights of and find justice for women through historical, anthropological, socio-political and hermeneutical approach. / Religious Studies / D. Th. (Religious Studies)

This thesis is a translation of a chapter that examines the role of Muslim women in politics during the early Islamic period and their engagement with religious and political discourses. This subject raises a combination of provocative challenges for Islamic discourse as Muslim women have had a complex relationship with their religious tradition dating back to the very inception of Islam. Despite Qur’ānic injunctions and Prophetic affirmations of the egalitarian status of Muslim women, social inequality and injustice directed at women remains a persistent problem in Muslim society. In the translated text Abū Shaqqah goes about re-invoking the normative tradition in order to affirm the role of Muslim women in politics. Furthermore the translation is prefaced by a critical introduction outlining the contours of the 20th century landscape, which attempts to describe the struggle of Muslim women in Abū Shaqqah’s time. / Religious Studies and Arabic / M.A. (Arabic)

The subject and the scope of this study are the challenges faced by Muslim women in contemporary societies as presented by the four prominent authors: Leila Ahmed, Elizabeth Fernea, Fatima Mernissi and Amina Wadud. The methodology applied to the literary analysis is the feminist-qualitative research approach in religious studies with specific reference to Islamic feminist studies. Many Muslim women scholars criticise the study of Third World women as objects of study-cases who are rarely heeded as serious scholars. Misconceptions about Islam and Muslim women are common in Western society. Previous studies have not dealt with the issue satisfactorily and failed to provide a holistic picture. The challenges faced by Muslim women have been interpreted against a Western feminist framework, thus causing more harm than good. The resultant predicament is the subject of this study in which Muslim women’s own attitudes and responses to their present circumstances and future prospects are explored. How and why Muslim women are challenged? How do they envisage the resolution of these challenges? The purpose of this study is to provide a framework that can give an adequate account of challenges as seen by Muslim women and to evaluate strategies that can provide suitable solutions to these challenges. Firstly, an objective Giele/Smock/Engineer framework was developed with reference to the most pressing challenges (articulated in well-documented definitions and descriptions) faced by Muslim women in contemporary societies. These key issues of women’s rights on political participation, education, work, family, and social participation were discussed and analysed in the light of this women-centred approach with specific reference to the writings of four prominent women authors: Leila Ahmed, Elizabeth Fernea, Fatima Mernissi and Amina Wadud. Each author has brought her own particular perspective and area of expertise into the discussion – sometimes arguing among with the other authors in a virtual ‘roundtable’ discussion; at times joining hands in mutual agreement. Finally, Muslim women’s struggle against injustice was subjected to critical scrutiny with particular attention to common strategies and solutions that the four authors have used and developed in the light of the modern debate. It is in the latter discussion that the study reached its ultimate goal by determining how the challenges have been met. Moreover, Islamic feminism was assessed to determine how it related to and coped with social change and how effective it has been in seeking to assert rights of and find justice for women through historical, anthropological, socio-political and hermeneutical approach. / Religious Studies / D. Th. (Religious Studies)

Lorsqu’on s’interroge sur l’essor du mouvement féministe dans les pays musulmans, d’autres questions, lancinantes, se font jour. Car l’enjeu culturel, sur fond religieux, d’un islam souvent imbriqué dans la vie politique elle-même, interpelle les féministes et les penseurs de tout l’Occident. En effet, contrairement à ce qui se passe au sein de la civilisation occidentale où généralement s’est transmise une idée de la laïcité bien précise, il n’en ira guère de même dans les pays à prédominance musulmane. Dans ces contrées, la problématique féministe différera sensiblement de celle en vigueur dans les pays occidentaux. Pour les nations soumises à la loi de la charia, le champ d’action du mouvement féministe visera avant tout à libérer les femmes d’une emprise patriarcale qui se réfèrera le plus souvent à de libres interprétations des textes sacrés pour exiger de leur part une soumission absolue. <p>Dans les études sur le féminisme et le genre, l’Arabie Saoudite, il est vrai, constitue « une énigme ». Et c’est précisément ce qui nous a incité à explorer cet univers « voilé » dont nous allons, au gré de notre étude, tenter de « dévoiler » un tant soit peu le mystère.<p>Nous avons entrepris dans ce but une recherche approfondie à propos de l’écriture-femmes saoudienne romanesque depuis son essor en 1958 jusqu’à 2008. Ce sont donc cinquante années d’écriture-femmes saoudienne sur lesquelles nous nous pencherons au cours de notre étude. Le lecteur l’aura compris :le fil conducteur de notre recherche reposera sur l’écriture en tant que vecteur de prise de conscience féministe. <p>En définitive, ce travail se composera donc de trois grandes parties, chacune subdivisée en chapitres. Dans la première partie, nous développerons la question du féminisme en rapport avec l’islam. Le premier chapitre exposera le féminisme et le genre en tant qu’approche méthodologique des discours et des arguments féministes. Le deuxième chapitre traitera de la question de l’islam et de la laïcité. En effet, pour la plupart des pays musulmans, l’islam est une religion d’Etat. La charia est la source principale du droit, voire exclusive dans certains pays, comme en Arabie Saoudite où elle est considérée comme complète, suprême, supérieure à toute loi. Logiquement, une autre question surgira, celle qui sous-tend le troisième chapitre de cette première partie, au cours duquel nous nous demanderons si un « féminisme musulman » représente une réalité vraiment envisageable. La deuxième partie sera censée investiguer le contexte idéologique en vigueur en Arabie Saoudite. Ensuite, nous évoquerons une esquisse de la littérature en Arabie Saoudite et les orientations des écrivains saoudiens et saoudiennes. La troisième partie se centrera sur une analyse thématique de l’écriture-femmes romanesque saoudienne s’étalant sur une période allant de 1958 à 2008. Nous nous étendrons d’abord sur un panorama de cette écriture dans les contrées en général, avant d’aborder les thématiques les plus spécifiques de cette écriture, approuvant qu’il s’agisse d’un pays encore très mystérieux aux yeux des étrangers: l’Arabie Saoudite.<p>Il apparaîtra qu’une parenté certaine entre « écriture » et « militantisme féministe » sous-tend, à l’évidence, l’univers romanesque des femmes saoudiennes. En clair, l’apport de l’écriture-femmes saoudienne a été considérable :elle nous a offert une peinture vivante de l’Arabie Saoudite et de la condition féminine. Elle contribue à l’émergence d’un style de militantisme marqué par son berceau saoudien et, de ce fait, elle participe à l’avènement d’un féminisme proprement saoudien. <p><p><p> / Doctorat en Langues et lettres / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished