Translation of: Le Coran et les femmes : une lecture de libération.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Preface to the English Edition -- Introducing the author -- Thanks -- Introduction: What kind of liberation are we speaking of? -- In the very beginning -- Part One: When the Qur'an speaks of women -- A story of all women -- Balkis, Queen of Sheba: A democratic queen -- Sarah and Hagar, emblems of monotheism -- Zulyakha or forbidden love -- Umm Musa and Asiah, the free women -- The daughter of Shu'ayb and the meeting wtih Musa -- Maryam, the favorite -- Maryam, a link between Christians and Muslims -- The birth of Maryam -- Maryam's spiritual retreat -- Revelation and annunciation -- The birth of 'Isa and all the struggles -- Maryam and her son, a 'sign' for the worlds -- Part Two: When the Qur'an speaks to women -- The language of the Qur'an, a masculine language? -- When the Qur'an responds to female demands -- A mubahalah, or when the Qur'an encourages women to social participation -- The Muhajirat or female political refugees -- The mubayi'at or the political participation of women -- Al-Mujadilah, when God listens to the secrets of a woman -- And the other verses? -- Polygamy -- Testimony -- Inheritance -- Hit them...? -- Conclusion: Islam or the story of an aborted women's revolution
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"Today, the issue of Muslim women is held hostage between two extreme perceptions: that of a rigid and conservative Islamic approach and that of a Western ethnocentric and Islamophobic approach. These two perceptions lead to an impasse in which it is virtually impossible, given how embedded ideas are fixed to respective certainties, to conceive of a fair and objective debate aimed at clarifying the two perspectives. Nevertheless, recent developments mean that at the heart of this intellectual effervescence, Muslim women are seeking to reclaim their right to speak in order to re-appropriate their own destinies. Indeed, today many female Muslim intellectuals living in Muslim societies and in the West, are questioning a number of negative preconceptions surrounding these issues. In particular, they contest the classical analysis which stipulates inequality between men and women and the attendant discriminatory measures, as being an inherent part of the sacred text by asserting that it is in fact certain biased readings, endorsed by patriarchal customs, which have legitimated these erroneous inequalities.This new perspective argues that Muslim women should be free to make their own choices, to rewrite their history and to define their own spaces of freedom - a freedom that is firmly anchored in a spiritual belonging but which is open on all human experiences and is ready to share with others - all others - the Qur'an's universal values of ethics and justice." --Provided by publisher.