Paradise Beneath Her Feet

Starred review from February 1, 2010
As the West comes increasingly in contact with the Muslim world, certain stereotypes have taken hold, not least the notion of the oppressed and subservient Muslim woman. The troubles these women face, it's assumed, are inherent in Islam and stand little chance of changing. Mercifully, Coleman, senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, offers this engrossing portrait of real Muslim women that reveals how Islamic feminists are successfully arguing that gender inequality is contrary to both Islamic spirit and law. She examines the “gender jihad” waged by male and female feminists in Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq, arguing that 20th-century efforts to achieve quick results, such as anti-veiling laws, actually “sow the seeds for decades worth of Islamic backlash,” hurting women more than helping. Today, those fighting for women's advancement are working with and within the culture, rather than against it in education, business, and politics to forge “a legitimate Islamic alternative to the current repressive system.” Coleman doesn't diminish the enormity of the struggle, but she argues convincingly that it might yet rewrite Islam's future.

February 15, 2010
A senior fellow at the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations explores human-rights advances in the most conservative Muslim states.

Western feminism, and with it, secularism as enforced in Muslim countries such as Turkey and Tunisia, often don't stand a chance in most Arab states, writes Coleman. Tribal customs and patriarchal traditions run deep, while"women's empowerment" is viewed as"nothing more than a slippery slope toward Western decadence and godless secularism, toward widespread adultery and prostitution and the end of family life." The author believes that significant changes in women's rights—the right to be educated, own property, work outside of the home, choose a marriage partner, even vote and drive—can only be achieved practically through Islamic feminism,"the promotion of women's rights through Islamic discourse." Some regard Islamic feminism as a major sellout for women, but Coleman observes small, important changes taking shape over the past decade in places with rigid interpretations of sharia, including Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. The chapter titled"Why Women Matter" establishes"the payoff from women's rights," namely what countries quickly learn when women are allowed access to education—birthrates drop, families are enriched and the cycle of poverty is often broken. The author visited microfinanciers in Pakistan experiencing great success lending to impoverished women; scoured the legacy of assassinated Pakistani politician Benazir Bhutto; followed the work of post-revolutionary feminists in Iran; interviewed newly elected women in the Afghan parliament; toured a ladies-only mall in strictly gender-segregated Saudi Arabia; and observed secular women's groups in Iraq dealing with the Shia blowback after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Despite Coleman's optimism, the persistence of gender gaps in literacy rates, polygamy, Pakistan's punitive Hudood Ordinance, honor killings and body coverings do not bode well for Arab women's emancipation.

An important update on the state of human rights that depresses as it uplifts.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

April 1, 2010
Does feminism have to be secular? Can it be compatible with Islam? Could it be that the Western fixation on veiling is actually making things more difficult for Muslim feminists? Coleman (senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy, Council on Foreign Relations) introduces these questions and the homegrown non-Western feminist movements that have developed within Islamic contexts. The book begins with a deft discussion of the importance of women to economic and social development everywhere, followed by a too brief historical overview of Islamic feminism, and then portrays feminist struggles in five rather different countries: Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. Coleman uses biographical vignettes to demonstrate how some Muslim women are advancing their rights without rejecting their religious traditions. Her work complements and owes a debt to the more scholarly approach of Margot Badran (e.g., "Feminism in Islam: Secular and Religious Convergence"). VERDICT This informative, nonjudgmental book will appeal to serious readers interested in exploring Islam and the lives of Muslim women beyond the headlines.Lisa Klopfer, Eastern Michigan Univ. Lib., Ypsilanti

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 1, 2014

Profiling women in Muslim countries, Coleman offers a counterpoint to secular Western feminism, arguing that for change to take hold it must happen through Islam, rather than outside of it.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2010
Coleman reaches across the Middle East and into Asia in her wide-ranging discussion of feminism and Islam. She profiles women in fields ranging from education to politics who live across the Muslim world and individually exhibit great courage in their struggle to create greater opportunities for girls. The foundation of many of their arguments is Islam itself, and the ways in which they refute sexist interpretations of the Koran and Islamic law will be eye-opening to Western readers who have sadly grown jaded on the topic of feminism. The rapid-fire manner in which Coleman travels from one hot spot to another, tracking political struggles both large and small, makes it clear that while the Western world grapples with how to meet the cacophony of voices from the East, so also the women of Iran, Afghanistan, Malaysia, and Saudi Arabia are finding a new and assertive way to communicate. Deeply religious, profoundly determined and modern in every way, these are twenty-first-century women bent on change. Hear them roar and see a future being born before our eyes.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)