The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Women

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Women is a supplement volume to the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World, a six volume monumental work published under the general editorship of John L. Esposito in 2009. The research articles on a variety of topics included in the volume also reflect intellectual trends in Muslim scholarship on Women and gender issues. This first volume consists of 451 entries by 267 contributors from 38 countries and covers socio-political, economic and cultural topics from female perspectives. The first volume covers topics starting with Ablution, abortion, akhlaq to the letter M, Mut[ah. Volume 2 (not under review) starts with, names and naming and covers articles ending with zinah and ziyarah. Most of the articles in volume one refer to the absence of Muslim women in the political and economic domains in Muslim countries. Deliberating on education and women, Dina Syamhodzic offers an analysis of the current state of Muslim women in the Muslim world. Referring to the conspicuous absence of women from the socio-economic arena, she points out that even in the so called ‘golden age of the Abbasids’ women were not enrolled in prestigious universities, like AlAzhar. An apparent reason, according to Bosnian Islamic scholar Enes Karic was Muslim deviation from the idea of true Islamic ethos and falling into the trap of taqlid. (p. 253)