Humanizing the Sacred: Sisters in Islam and the Struggle for Gender Justice in Malaysia

Abstract

Humanizing Sacred: Sisters in Islam and Struggle for Gender Justice in Malaysia. by Azza Basarudin. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 2016. Softcover: 330pp. Sisters in Islam (SIS) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) that advocates for Muslim women's rights in Malaysia. The NGO works within an Islamic framework, reinterpreting sacred texts through a feminist lens. Members of SIS have been labelled as deviants by Islamic authorities, have had their books banned, received threats and had a fatwa issued against them. Humanizing Sacred is a richly detailed ethnographic account of this path-breaking organization. Basarudin's book has two goals. The first is examine the possibilities and challenges of translating feminist interpretations of Islam into grounded activism effect change in social mores and legal codes, and illuminate how women's activism within Islam is a space of dissent and of remaking 'Muslim' self and identity (p. 5). The second is to explore activism as space for women transform themselves into political actors and visible women subjects in public sphere (p. 6). The work of SIS in understanding primary sources of Islam, such as Quran and sunna (practices of Prophet that include hadith, traditions/ narrations) through a feminist reinterpretation allows for a vision of Islam that is kind, compassionate and compatible with human rights values of equality and justice. This new form of knowledge-making challenges patriarchal interpreters and traditional religious institutions. This book examines SIS' struggle reclaim women's human dignity as believing Muslims and call on their communities re-evaluate communal and moral obligations, as well as ensure that Islam remains a 'living' religion (p. 5). Carefully researched and thoughtfully written, author's writing style draws on Kirin Narayan's enactment of hybridity, interspersing narratives with analysis as a strategy that problematizes the dichotomies of theory and praxis, personal and professional, insider and outsider, and authentic and inauthentic (p. 27). This strategy works well, and makes for an engaging and lively book. Chapter 1 provides cultural and political context by describing history of British colonial intervention and institutionalization of Islam in national laws and policies after independence. Chapter 2 introduces reader life histories of SIS' founding members, their personal trajectories and struggles, and how their understanding of Islam informs organization's vision of equality and justice. Chapter 3 examines strategies employed by SIS by looking at specific advocacy campaigns and other activities such as study sessions and workshops, illustrating process of translating feminist interpretations of sacred texts into grounded activism. Chapter 4 examines state power and religious authorities' invalidation techniques silence alternative discourses. Chapter 5 discusses how SIS members provide an alternative model of female leadership by showing that women can be powerful knowledge producers and transmitters. Chapter 6 assesses impact of SIS' activism at international level and vice versa. Here author focuses on Musawah, a transnational initiative spearheaded by SIS, highlighting NGO's global success but also impact and repercussions it has within Malaysia. Humanizing Sacred joins a line-up of innovative studies on Muslim women's participation in faith-based movements that extend our understanding of agency and resistance, such as Saba Mahmood's Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and Feminist Subject (2005), Lara Deeb's An Enchanted Modern: Politics and Piety in Shi'i Lebanon (2006) and Sherine Hafez's An Islam on Her Own: Reconsidering Islam and Secularism in Women's Islamic Movements (2011). …