Freedom from the Forbidden

All things gender and Islam. No bigotry is allowed in this feminist territory. #DeathToPatriarchy

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Book Review – Forging the Ideal Educated Girl: The Production of Desirable Subjects in Muslim South Asia, by Shenila Khoja-Moolji

The following review is a (very) long and detailed version of a much shorter one that was just published in Reading Religion, a publication of the AAR. You can find the link to it below. (Short version: this is a fantastic book and would be of interest & relevance to everyone.) Forging the Ideal Educated Girl: The Production of Desirable Subjects in Muslim South Asia, University of California Press (2018), […]

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Interview with Juliane Hammer on “Peaceful Families: Muslim American Efforts Against Domestic Violence”

I’m now a host on the New Books in Islamic Studies podcast. My debut interview was with someone I greatly respect and whose scholarship has had a profound influence on me – Dr. Juliane Hammer. I read Hammer’s latest book Peaceful Families: American Muslim Efforts against Domestic Violence (University of Princeton, 2019) and then interviewed her for the podcast. Here’s a brief intro to the book and the interview followed […]

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Book Review – The Lover: A Sufi Mystery, by Laury Silvers

The Lover: A Sufi Mystery, by Laury Silvers Published with Kindle Direct Publishing, 2019 257 pages. I recently had the pleasure of reading the historical novel everyone’s talking about – The Lover: A Sufi Mystery by Laury Silvers. Being familiar with Silvers’ academic work, I trusted this book wouldn’t be a disappointment, and I wasn’t wrong. I read it immediately after getting it (in August!), although I had planned to read […]

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Mad Mamluks Malaise: what’s with the patriarchy & male fragility on this podcast, tho?

I wrote the other day on some of the issues that came up in The Mad Mamluks episode on on Islamic feminism. But this here is more comprehensive and with observations from other Muslim women (e.g., Zahra Khan, the other FITNA co-founder) as well. Overall, this didn’t feel like a “conversation” at all and much more like the guests were being talked at.  And, also, the title of the episode […]

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On Amina Wadud’s “Deadbeat Dad” comment and also, what about all the times when Muslim male scholars insult female Qur’anic figures?

I was listening to an incredibly frustrating episode on the Mad Mamluks podcast yesterday, but it inspired me to write this, so I guess my time wasn’t wasted. (I listened in support of the two women on there, both of whom I respect greatly.) The discussion was on Islamic feminism, and the men just kept coming back to Amina Wadud: But why won’t you condemn her, they asked. She led […]

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