Refusing Holy Orders: Women and Fundamentalism in Britain

by Gita Sahgal (Editor), Nira Yuval-Davis (Editor), Sara Maitland (Contributor)

This anthology considers the particular ways in which women affect and are affected by fundamentalist movements in Britain, with respect to identity, gender roles and attitudes to women. Topics include multiculturalism, biblicism, Black churches, Catholicism, Islam and Judaism.

Genres: Islam

244 pages, Hardcover

First published September 3, 1992

Reviews

[Shabanah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspirational and essential reading, especially for those who’ve read ‘It’s Not about the Burqa’ and think they’ve had enough of an insight into the range of views held by Muslim women. I come from a traditional Muslim family and can tell you categorically you really haven’t, and have only read one side of the story. This book is much more intellectually rigorous and gives you a far more honest picture of the diversity of thought and struggles of women from Muslim backgrounds. It also rightly places these alongside explorations of a variety of other patriarchal religions to examine what they all have in common: fundamentalist men’s use of religion to maintain control over women’s minds and bodies. But above all, you will come away utterly inspired by women’s courageous resistance to such control.