In this interdisciplinary volume, Dr. Nilgun Anadolu-Okur aims to communicate a constructive analysis of Muslim identity, but primarily of Muslim womanhood in the twenty-first century. Her own essay discusses Turkish women's historical emancipation and Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's reforms. The other contributors focus on civil, political and international human rights, family laws, honor killings, ethical and gender issues, education, participation in civil life, modernism versus conservatism, life in gated communities, and professional goals and rights of Muslim women under Shari'a law throughout a wide range of countries where Islam is not only the established faith of the land but a principal way of life. Through seven interdisciplinary essays, one play and an interview, the lesser-known aspects of Muslim womanhood in Muslim countries-including Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon-are examined. In addition, the essays depict legal and social impediments faced by Muslims who live in France, Germany and the United States. As an original work this volume seeks to articulate Muslim women's daily struggles, challenges, choices and needs as they practice their rights of womanhood and motherhood in the second decade of the twenty-first century. Through an accurate analysis, a positive subtext is ultimately provided to Muslim identity, specifically to Muslim womanhood. Like anything else, during the age of globalization Islam is going through a transition. As expressed in this study, amendments to civil and religious laws, modifications in established governmental systems and the prominence of individual rights-as opposed to societal norms-coalesce to bring about a contemporary re-assessment of women's rights within Islam globally. Additionally, this volume intends to articulate the concern commonly shared by various scholars that the Western mind needs to be illuminated and educated concerning racially motivated Eurocentric delineations which tend to dismiss the varied qualities and characteristics of Muslim women who have persevered for centuries under the unbending rule of Muslim men in power. Hence, this pioneering study explores the boundaries of the new female Muslim identity both within and outside the Muslim world at the crossroads of globalism and the twenty-first century.
About the Author: Nilgun Anadolu-Okur is Associate Professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is the author of Contemporary African American Theater, Afrocentricity in the Works of Larry Neal, Amiri Baraka, and Charles Fuller and Essays Interpreting the Writings of Novelist Orhan Pamuk. Her research and publications include African American theater, literature, the Underground Railroad, abolitionists and universal women's rights. She is a Commonwealth Speaker for the Pennsylvania Humanities Council and the recipient of two International Fulbright Awards.