Islam and Feminisms: An Iranian Case-Study (Women's Studies at York) / Haleh Afshar

This volume seeks to move away from the oppositional positions taken by Western and Muslim women and to provide a clear understanding of the possibilities and the limits that the process of reconstruction and reinterpretation of Islamic dictum can and does present for progress of women in Islamist countries. It is the contention of the author that women the world over seek similar goals and face similar problems, but specific circumstances and specific constraints dictate differing priorities and differing approaches in different contexts. If feminism is to return to a universalist position then it must gain an understanding of these differences. The book seeks to provide a step in the right direction by looking at the recent decades of struggle by Islamist women in the Islamic Republic of Iran and the increasing rapprochement between secularist and Islamist women in that country in pursuit of common goals.