Inside the Gender Jihad

"Readers of Inside the Gender Jihad will be taken on a truly thrilling journey - not just through the problems that confront Muslims today, or the many gender injustices that plague contemporary articulations of the Islamic faith, but also through the many forms of intolerable oppression, which have become interminable causes of human suffering in our world." -Khaled Abou El Fadl, Professor of Islamic law and Jurisprudence, UCLA School of Law A world-renowned professor of Islamic studies, Amina Wadud has long been at the forefront of what she calls the 'gender jihad,' the struggle for justice for women within the global Islamic community. In 2005, she made international headlines when she helped to promote new traditions by leading the Muslim Friday prayer in New York City, provoking a firestorm of media controversy and kindling charges of blasphemy among conservative Muslims worldwide. In her provocative new book, Inside the Gender Jihad, Wadud brings a wealth of experience from the trenches of the jihad to make a passionate argument for gender inclusiveness in the Muslim world. Knitting together scrupulous scholarship with lessons drawn from her own experiences as a woman, she explores the array of issues facing Muslim women today, including social status, education, sexuality, and leadership. A major contribution to the debate on women and Islam, Amina Wadud's vision for changing the status of women within Islam is both revolutionary and urgent. Dr Amina Wadud is a professor of Islamic Studies and a mother of five. She is the author of Qur'an and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman's Perspective.