[In the following review, Jaber praises Mernissi's knowledge of her subject matter in Women and Islam and judges the work important for those interested in Islam and feminist issues.]

Mernissi is a well known Arab sociologist who has written extensively on the position of women in Islam. For Western readers, the paradox of her position is that, unlike orthodox Islam, she claims compatibility between feminism and ‘authentic’ Islam. For Mernissi, authentic refers to the canon of Islam as lived and practised during the Prophet's time in the matrilineal city of Medina. According to her argument the prophet's way of life conformed to the social practices of this city which accorded women a position of power with social and political rights. This contrasted with Mecca, the patrilineal and patriarchal city of the prophet's origin, which was later to play a central role in reshaping Muslim ethics and values against women's interests.

[In Women and Islam] Mernissi employs a liberal feminist framework to reinterpret the relationships between the two religious texts which constitute the source of the present Islamic social Law (Sharia). These are the seventh century sacred Koran or the book of revelation and the eighth century Hadith. The latter is composed of disciples' accounts of the prophet's deeds and sayings. The significance of Mernissi's argument lies in the attention given to the Hadith rather than the Koran. Given the Hadith's importance in terms of decoding religious scriptures and illustrating theological interpretations, her focus on the genesis of this text and its political role in shaping the present form of patriarchal Islam is both innovative and interesting.

In line with current feminist research, Mernissi problematises the sphere of knowledge claims in male Muslim theology. She contests the authenticity of the writings of the Hadith from both epistemological and methodological standpoints. Her arguments are concerned with the way in which Muslim scholars present questions of truth, and methods of verification. In juxtaposing and deconstructing the recorded versions of both male disciples' accounts of the prophet's life against those of his wives and female relatives, Mernissi skilfully points out the logical flaws associated with the former. Her general tactic is to link the narrators' strong misogynistic attitudes with their tribal (patriarchal) origin.

For Mernissi, the construction of femaleness in the Hadith revolves around her sexuality which constitutes a symbolic barrier to the spiritual (religious) well being of the male believer. Consequently, Islam requires women to be hidden or masked. Her masterly analysis of the linguistic discourse of the term veil (Hijab) draws on the relationships between spiritual, visual, and spatial dimensions. In carrying out her investigations, Mernissi displays an intimate knowledge of ancient Islamic texts, including philosophy, poetry, historians' accounts, and religious documents. Her methodological creativity extends to the use of psychoanalysis in terms of locating the narrator's motives and intentions in the making of particular discursive fields.

The text can be seen to be triggered by the present crisis facing Muslim states. The mal du present, it is argued, is multi-dimensional and penetrates the spheres of politics, economics and necessarily gender relations. The complexities of these issues are evinced in the growing rise of conservative Islam against the state quasi-secular rule, as manifested in the increasing pressure put on women to return to traditional Islam. This move signifies the return of women to a marginalised status via the mechanism of veiling and seclusion. The control over the female body again functions as a powerful tool for cementing patriarchal order.

Mernissi's advocacy for a liberating Islam is to be seen in what she claims were the practices of independent Muslim women. She refers to autonomous women who engaged in public debates about politics and warfare, and arrange their marriage contracts on their own terms! To mention but a few, the most influential ones were the prophet's wives and relatives. In contrast, women under present Islam are repeatedly subjected to extreme form of patriarchal order whose discourse reproduces sexual hierarchy upon which Muslim identity is constructed.

In deconstructing the discourses on Muslim identity, Mernissi demonstrates the close linkages between the concepts of time (history), power (knowledge and control), and gender (femaleness). The construction of femaleness in orthodox Islam is seen as a product of collaboration between political ends and ideological justifications. For Western feminist readers this is to be expected. But the paradox of Mernissi's argument lies in her attempt to unravel these claims in the very terms of the discourse of Islam itself.

In conclusion, this book does more than illuminate a liberating way of reading historical and religious texts. Her style of writing, along with her command over the subject material, engages the reader with passion. For all those interested in both global issues of feminism and Islam this is an important text.