MUSLIM WOMEN

Since the end of the 20th century, one is increasingly witnessing the rise of various kinds of protectionism, parochialism, persecution complex, identity politics at cultural, religious, linguistic, ethnic, communal and racial levels. Owing to obvious geopolitical and economic reasons involving power issues and the control of natural resources, the part of the world inhabited by Mus- lims finds itself under constant clash and conflict which are endorsed and legitimized by a dominant narrative of Islamophobia. Thanks to the selective amnesia of dominant historical narratives, Muslim society, which was once an important catalyst in bringing about European Renaissance, is now projected as a group of people far left behind in the forward march of human civiliza- tion with an imperfect understanding of human rights and little or none of women’s rights. The book under review is one of the most urgently needed interventions attempting to achieve a discursive equilibrium in an age of lop- sided conversational imperialism.