Muslim women’s freedom, or assumed lack thereof, has long been a Western obsession. Almost never do we ask, what does agency look like to Muslim women? Who or what do they think constrains them, and how do they challenge that? Focussing on the little-researched area of the Australian Muslim community, this book brings together for the first time diverse accounts from Australian Muslim researchers, leaders, and community workers to interrogate how Muslim women understand, experience, and fight for agency. Academic and activist, personal and political, this ground-breaking book features the people at the centre of the debate.
Contributors are Feda Abdo, Amira Aftab, Mahsheed Ansari, Fadi Baghdadi, Susan Carland, Tasneem Chopra, Mehreen Faruqi, Derya Iner, Balawyn Jones, Souha Korbatieh, Ghena Krayem, Mehal Krayem and Ayah Wehbe.
Ghena Krayem, Ph.D. (2011) is Associate Professor at Sydney Law School, University of Sydney, Australia. Since 2000, Ghena has been a legal academic teaching in the areas of constitutional law, public law and family law. She has researched and published in many areas to do with Islam in Australia, particularly focusing on Muslim women and Islamic family law. She has authored and co-authored a number of books relating to Muslims in Australia, including Islamic Family Law in Australia (Melbourne University Publishing, 2014), Accommodating Muslims under Common Law (Routledge, 2016), and Understanding Sharia Processes, Women’s Experiences of Family Disputes (Hart, 2021).
Susan Carland, Ph.D. (2015), Monash University, is Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) fellow at that university. She has published in both academic and mainstream publications about Islam and Muslim women, including Fighting Hislam: Women, Faith, and Sexism (Melbourne University Publishing, 2017).
Notes on Contributors
1 Introduction Susan Carland and Ghena Krayem
2 Al-Mu’minah Down Under: The Untold Stories and Legacies of Muslim Women Pioneers in Australia Mahsheed Ansari
3 Muslim Women’s Agency Through a Feminist Institutionalist Lens Amira Aftab
4 Western and Australian Women’s Agency to Counter Islamophobia Derya Iner and Souha Korbatieh
5 Muslim Women’s Agency in Australian Domestic Violence Services Ghena Krayem and Mehal Krayem
6 The Pathology of Hyper Masculinity and Abuse in Muslim Leadership Tasneem Chopra
7 The Difficulty of Muslim Women Fighting Sexism: Then and Now Susan Carland
8 Rejecting the Reductionism of Muslim Women Fadi Baghdadi
9 ‘Left out’ and ‘Ignored’: Experiences of Australian, Lebanese-Muslim Women with Hearing Loss Ayah Wehbe
10 Finding a Way Forward: The Revival of Female Islamic Scholarship in Australia Feda Abdo and Balawyn Jones
11 Politics of Representation: Overcoming the Narrow Perception of Muslim Women Mehreen Faruqi
Index
University libraries; professional/government libraries with Muslim populations; undergraduate & postgraduate students of religion, gender studies, Islam, Middle Eastern studies; community/social workers who work with Muslim clientele.