T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f W i s c o n s i n S y s t e m FFFeministeministeminist CollectionsCollectionsCollections A Quarterly of Women’s Studies Resources Special “Mini-Theme”: Islam, Women, and Feminism W OMEN’ S S TUDIES DOUBLE ISSUE Volume 22, Numbers 3-4, Spring/Summer 2001 Published by Phyllis Holman Weisbard L IBRARIAN Women’s Studies Librarian Feminist Collections A Quarterly of Women’s Studies Resources Women’s Studies Librarian University of Wisconsin System 430 Memorial Library 728 State St. Madison, WI 53706 Phone: 608-263-5754 Fax: 608-265-2754 Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.library.wisc.edu/libraries/WomensStudies/ Editors: Phyllis Holman Weisbard, JoAnne Lehman Drawings: Miriam Greenwald Staff assistance from: Ingrid Markhardt, Teresa Fernandez, Christa Reabe, Caroline Vantine Volunteer readers for taping: Jennifer Stibitz Subscriptions: $30 (individuals or nonprofit women’s programs, outside Wisconsin); $55 (institutions, outside Wisconsin); $16 (Wisconsin individuals or nonprofit women’s programs); $22.50 (Wisconsin institutions); $8.25 (UW individuals); $15 (UW organizations). Wisconsin subscriber amounts include state tax, except for UW organization amount. Postage (for foreign subscribers only): surface mail (Canada: $13; all others: $15); air mail (Canada: $25; all others: $55). (Subscriptions cover most publications produced by this office, including Feminist Collections, Feminist Periodicals, and New Books on Women & Feminism.) Cover art: Miriam Greenwald Numerous bibliographies and other informational files are available on the Women’s Studies Librarian’s World Wide Web site. The URL: http://www.library.wisc.edu/libraries/WomensStudies/ You'll find information about the office, tables of contents and selected full-text articles from recent issues of Feminist Collections, many Core Lists in Women’s Studies on such topics as aging, feminist pedagogy, film studies, health, lesbian studies, mass media, and women of color in the U.S., a listing of Wisconsin Bibliographies in Women’s Studies, including full text of a number of them, a catalog of films and videos in the UW System Women’s Studies Audiovisual Collection, and links to other selected websites on women and gender as well as to search engines and general databases. ISSN: 0742-7441 Copyright 2001 Regents of the University of Wisconsin System Feminist Collections A Quarterly of Women’s Studies Resources DOUBLE ISSUE Volume 22, Nos. 3-4, Spring/Summer 2001 CONTENTS From the Editors ii Book Reviews Zohreh Ghavamshahidi Islam and Feminism: In Search of Compatibility 1 Sherine Hamdy North American Muslim Women Voice Their Concerns 5 Helen M. Bannan Friendship (Like Sisterhood) Is Powerful 9 Susan Barribeau Corresponding Women: Heap–Reynolds and Stein–Toklas 13 Feminist Visions Jennifer Loewenstein Women in Islam: Four Films 15 Catherine Green Her Vision Survives: Two Films About Audre Lorde 18 Patrice Petro Childhoods Stolen: The Plight of Girls Worldwide 21 Carole Gerster Women in Independent Film and Video: A History 23 Tilly Vriend Women Map the World: The Making of a Database 27 Compiled by JoAnne Lehman Computer Talk 30 Reviewed by Phyllis Holman New Reference Works in Women’s Studies 35 Weisbard and others Compiled by JoAnne Lehman Periodical Notes 46 Compiled by Teresa Fernandez Items of Note 49 Books and AV Recently Received 52 Supplement: Index to Volume 22 56 FROM THE EDITORS In light of the events of Septem- international law and in Islam might be book and companion video by film- ber 11th and the nation’s discovery that reconciled. The review describes the maker Alexandra Juhasz; and the story most of us are woefully lacking in different perspectives within Islamic of how an international women’s infor- knowledge of Islam, this double issue law. In the second article, Sherine mation database came to be. Of of Feminist Collections, although it has Hamdy reviews two works on Muslim course, our “Computer Talk,” “Refer- been in the works since last year, is es- women’s issues and identity in North ence Reviews,” “Periodical Notes,” and pecially timely. The three articles— America, describing the work of “Items of Note” columns are here, too. two book reviews and one video re- scholar-activists who are trying to com- And, since this is partly the Summer view—that constitute this “mini-the- bat both Orientalism and patriarchy issue of FC, you’ll find our annual vol- matic” issue on women, feminism, and within and outside Islam. The third ume index at the back. Islam all share an assumption that read- review, by Jennifer Loewenstein, takes ers may be unfamiliar with Islamic reli- a look at four very different videos on We were surprised and pleased gious terms. Thus, the writers define women (many but not all of them to find our own publication reviewed such words as shari‘a (Islamic law, or Muslim) in the Arab world. in the September 2001 issue of principles of Islamic law), hejab (mod- MultiCultural Review (p.54–55). est dress for women), hadith (tradi- There’s much more in this That’s a periodical worth checking out, tion), and ijtihad (ongoing interpreta- double issue, though: reviews of popu- by the way: although obviously not tion of sacred texts), as well as the con- lar and scholarly books about women’s entirely devoted to feminism or cept of Islamism (politicization of Is- friendships; a look at the love notes women’s issues, there’s a lot of “cross- lam). between Gertrude Stein and Alice B. over” content. It’s published four These three reviews also go into Toklas and the correspondence be- times a year by Greenwood Publishing somewhat more depth than is our cus- tween Jane Heap and Florence Group (website: www.mcreview.com). tom in explaining the content as well as Reynolds; a review of two films about We hope this issue of FC finds you evaluating the works. Islam and Femi- Audre Lorde and the diverse safe and experiencing some sense of nism: In Search of Compatibility, by “celeconference,” called “I Am Your hope, even while so much seems wrong Zohreh Ghavamshahidi, tackles two Sister,” in which she figured centrally and hopeless in the world. We’ll be works, one specifically about the reli- near the end of her life; a film about back with the Fall issue soon. gious debate in contemporary Iran and the struggles of young girls in many the other an ambitious attempt to countries of the world; a trip through show how (women’s) human rights in feminist film history that focuses on a P.H.W. and J.L. Miriam Greenwald Page ii Feminist Collections (v.22, nos.3-4, Spring/Summer 2001) BOOK REVIEWS ISLAM AND FEMINISM: IN SEARCH OF COMPATIBILITY by Zohreh Ghavamshahidi Ziba Mir-Hosseini, ISLAM AND GENDER: THE RELIGIOUS DEBATE IN CONTEMPORARY IRAN. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999 (Princeton Studies in Muslim Politics, ed. Dale F. Eickelman & James Piscatori). 305p. bibl. glossary. index. $57.50, ISBN 0-691-05815-6; pap., $19.95, ISBN 0-691-01004-8. Shaheen Sardar Ali, HUMAN RIGHTS IN ISLAM AND INTERNATIONAL LAW: EQUAL BEFORE ALLAH, UNEQUAL BEFORE MAN? The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 2000. 358p. bibl. glossary. index. $111.00, ISBN 90-411-1268-5. Two recently published volumes center of Shi‘i religious learning,” appearing in the places that the by Islamic feminist scholars examine p.xvii): the perspective of the pre- redefine the relation between Islam the place of gender and women’s rights revolutionary seminary system, that of and feminism. concepts in Islamic law. Anthropolo- the post-revolutionary clerics, and that Islam and Gender is well orga- gist Ziba Mir-Hosseini, in Islam and which is part of the emerging discourse nized, and its premises are supported Gender: The Religious Debate in on women’s issues outside the seminar- by detailed analyses of written texts by, Contemporary Iran, seeks to make sense ies but rooted in shari‘a. as well as transcripts of personal of her native religion and culture by interviews with, representatives of the exploring how the shari‘a (Islamic law Mir-Hosseini’s purposes in this three dominant gender perspectives. or—as defined by Sardar Ali in the work are to show that “gender roles Mir-Hosseini builds her argument “in other volume—principles of Islamic and relations, and women’s rights, are an order that reflects the chronology of law), as interpreted in Iranian post- not fixed, not given, not absolute” the development of concepts.” Each of revolutionary discourse about gender, (p.6) but are negotiated through lived the book’s three parts starts with an deals with women’s issues. Shaheen realities and debates and through the introduction of “a defining text on Sardar Ali, Professor of Law at the voices of women and men who want to women” and adds new dimensions to University of Peshawar in Pakistan, change the present situation. Further- the argument. (p.18) analyzes the primary texts of Islamic more, she asserts that Muslim feminist law and attempts to reconcile the participation can benefit from and The book’s first part—Chapters Islamic legal system with international influence global feminist politics; and 1 and 2—looks at traditionalist gender discourse on women and human she argues that Islam and feminism are discourse. In Part Two, Mir-Hosseini rights. not incompatible especially when Islam spends six chapters on new traditional- is the national ideology. ist discourse; and Part Three is made For Islam and Gender, Mir- Mir-Hosseini argues that in post- up of two chapters on modernist Hosseini has done an ethnographic revolutionary Iran, women’s participa- discourse. study of women’s issues through tion in public and political spheres has Traditionalists, in Mir-Hosseini’s extensive fieldwork in Iran.