Woman, man, and God in modern Islam

Award-winning historian Theodore Friend recently set out alone across Asia and the Middle East on a quest to understand firsthand the life situations of women in Indonesia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Turkey. Woman, Man, and God in Modern Islam recounts Friend?s remarkable journey and relates hundreds of encounters and conversations with people he met along the way.

Commingling a deep respect for Islam and his faith in the potential of women to change their worlds, Friend presents an open, exploratory outsider?s perspective on women in five very different Islamic cultures ? timely fare for all who wish to broaden their world horizons.

• Foreword p. xi Philip Jenkins
• Prologue: TO Travel p. xiii
• Map p. xvi
• Introduction: Religion, Gender, and Modernity p. 1
• Women and Modern Social Melee p. 1
• Religion: 1979 as a Pivotal Year p. 4
• Dialogues p. 6
• Secular and Islamic Feminisms p. 10
• Religion and Secularism: Osmosis p. 14
• 1 Indonesia p. 19
• Islam in Oceania p. 19
• Islamic Revival, Poverty, and Disaster p. 22
• Matriliny against Wahhabi Zeal p. 31
• The Qur'an and Women's Clothing p. 36
• Ijtihad: Interpretation p. 43
• "What Happened to the Smiling Face of Indonesian Islam?" p. 53
• 2 Pakistan p. 59
• Whispers to the Newborn Nation p. 60
• Sahabzada Yacub Khan and the Modern Nation-State p. 61
• A.Q. Khan and the Islamic Bomb p. 66
• Poverty and Misogyny p. 71
• Madrasas and Social Dysfunction p. 77
• Disaster and Decorum p. 89
• Violence against Women p. 96
• Democracy and Murder p. 104
• 3 Saudi Arabia p. 115
• Puritans Compared p. 115
• Arab Tribes at War p. 125
• Modern Travel in the Arabian Desert p. 135
• Developing Saudi State and Society p. 146
• Seven Prominent Female Professionals p. 154
• Sheikh Culture, "The Smile," and the Family p. 166
• The Identity of God p. 178
• 4 Iran p. 187
• Challenging the "Sacred System," 2009 p. 187
• Divine Banquet and God-Tempest, 2005 p. 195
• Revolution Now: The Cooled Volcano p. 207
• Women in Mythology, Movies, and Investments p. 216
• Protestant Pilgrim in the City of Martyrs p. 225
• Surgers against the Systems, 1844-2009 p. 239
• 5 Turkey p. 243
• Ataturk's New Nation p. 243
• Demirel's Fifty-Year View p. 250
• The Military and Kemalism p. 254
• Attempting a Judiciary p. 257
• Islamic Bureaucracy, Turkish Pieties, and the Pope p. 260
• Duygu Asena and Feminist Achievers p. 265
• The Scarved, the Uncovered, and the Transparent p. 270
• Prosecuting Honor Killings p. 277
• The New "Critical Culture" p. 282
• Rumi and Old Anatolia p. 286
• Popular Culture and National Poise p. 292
• Conclusion: Power, Culture, and Equality p. 303
• Torsions of Gender Culture p. 303
• The Prophet and Modern Social Terrain p. 314
• Hypertextualism and Culturism p. 316
• Religion, Culture, and Tribe p. 317
• Power, Culture, and the Feminine p. 319
• Complementarity p. 320
• Fulfillments p. 324
• Toward an Open Islam p. 329
• Epilogue: The Arab Uprisings of 2011: Ibn Khaldûn, Civil Society, and Societies Uncivil p. 332
• Interviews p. 351
• Acknowledgments p. 355
• Glossary p. 357
• Index p. 362