Soft Force (ebook)

Argumento de Soft Force (ebook)

"McLarney offers a different and highly important . . . perspective, refreshingly free of the shadows of neo-orientalism."--Caron E. Gentry, Times Higher Education

"McLarney brings to our attention the thinking and life practices of women across the decades in Egypt who have used an Islamic discourse of their own making to strive for personal perfection and for a better social order. Appearing after the Egyptian uprisings and during a time when for many 'the revolution' continues, this book stands to provoke multiple readings and lively debate."--Margot Badran, author of Feminism in Islam: Secular and Religious Convergences

"This is an eloquent and carefully argued book. Clear, engaging, and sophisticated, Soft Force is crucial for a more complete understanding of the origins of contemporary and ongoing debates about women, Islam, and public life in Egypt."--Lara Deeb, coauthor of Leisurely Islam: Negotiating Geography and Morality in Shi‘ite South Beirut

"McLarney challenges the conventional wisdom that assumes the docility and oppression of Muslim women in the processes of Islamic revival, demonstrating instead their roles as active shapers of public discourse. Soft Force is a brilliant and highly engaging book."--Omnia El Shakry, author of The Great Social Laboratory: Subjects of Knowledge in Colonial and Postcolonial Egypt

"McLarney (Arabic literature and culture, Duke Univ.) provides an intellectual history of women’s ideas within the Islamist movement in Egypt over the past century. . . . This work will be of interest to a wide variety of scholars in Islamic studies, women's studies, political science, and literary theory. It illuminates the essential role of women in the modern Islamist movement in a unique way."--Choice

"Women’s roles in the intellectual, organizational and political development of Islamist movements have rarely received the attention they deserve. McLarney focuses in depth on the writings of a wide array of Egyptian women involved with Islamist movements, presenting a nuanced and careful reading of their religious and political thought."--Marc Lynch, WashingtonPost.com’s Monkey Cage blog0Acknowledgments ix
Introduction?The Islamic Public Sphere and the Subject of Gender: The Politics of the Personal 1
Part One: Women?s Liberation in Islam
1. The Liberation of Islamic Letters: Bint al-Shati??s Literary License 35
2. The Redemption of Women?s Liberation: Reviving Qasim Amin 70
Part Two: Gendering Islamic Subjectivities
3. Senses of Self: Ni?mat Sidqi?s Theology of Motherhood 103
4. Covering in the Public Eye: Visualizing the Inner I 143
Part Three: Politics of the Islamic Family
5. The Islamic Homeland: Iman Mustafa on Women?s Work 180
6. Soft Force: Heba Raouf Ezzat?s Politics of the Islamic Family 219
Epilogue?Fann wa-Fi?ra: Art and Instinct 255
Bibliography 271
Index 295