Paradise Beneath Her Feet

Starred review from February 1, 2010
As the West comes increasingly in contact with the Muslim world, certain stereotypes have taken hold, not least the notion of the oppressed and subservient Muslim woman. The troubles these women face, it's assumed, are inherent in Islam and stand little chance of changing. Mercifully, Coleman, senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, offers this engrossing portrait of real Muslim women that reveals how Islamic feminists are successfully arguing that gender inequality is contrary to both Islamic spirit and law. She examines the “gender jihad” waged by male and female feminists in Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq, arguing that 20th-century efforts to achieve quick results, such as anti-veiling laws, actually “sow the seeds for decades worth of Islamic backlash,” hurting women more than helping. Today, those fighting for women's advancement are working with and within the culture, rather than against it in education, business, and politics to forge “a legitimate Islamic alternative to the current repressive system.” Coleman doesn't diminish the enormity of the struggle, but she argues convincingly that it might yet rewrite Islam's future.

May 1, 2014

Profiling women in Muslim countries, Coleman offers a counterpoint to secular Western feminism, arguing that for change to take hold it must happen through Islam, rather than outside of it.

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