Books by Miriam Cooke

An anthology of 20th-century South Asian and Middle Eastern women's writings which illustrates how they have become active participants in conflicts, speaking about war not only as an extraordinary experience, but also as an ordinary experience of coping with violence on a daily basis.

In 1928, a young Lebanese woman, Nazira Zeineddine al-Halabi, wrote a book called "e;Unveiling and Veiling"e;, an indictment of patriarchal oppression in which she boldly stated that the veil was un-Islamic, directly challenging the teachings of wiser"e; male scholars. Considered by many an attack on Islam, it rocked the Muslim world and was banned by many clerics, although it quickly went into a second edition and was translated into several languages. In this latest addition to Makers of the Muslim World series, Miriam Cooke offers an intimate portrait of the life and work of this pioneering champion of Islamic feminism.

The Lebanese War has seen the publication of many more works of fiction by women than men and this book challenges the theory that men write of war and women of the hearth. The author terms these women "The Beirut Decentrists" and traces the transformation of consciousness among them.

Women Claim Islam presents the literature of contemporary Islamic feminist authors, and analyses their strategies for self-definition and self-empowerment.