Susan F. Hirsch, Pronouncing and persevering: Gender and the discourses of disputing in an African Islamic court. (Language and legal discourse.) Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998. Pp. xiii, 360. Hb $48.00, pb $19.00
According to feminist writings, Islamic women lack agency and power, and are oppressed compared to their Western female counterparts. A major site of such oppression is in Islamic courts, where husbands possess authority to pronounce divorce – while their subordinate wives humbly accept the decree a...
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Veröffentlicht in: | Language in Society 2000, Vol.29 (3), p.449-453 |
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Format: | Review |
Sprache: | eng |
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Online-Zugang: | Volltext |
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Zusammenfassung: | According to feminist writings, Islamic women lack
agency and power, and are oppressed compared to their Western
female counterparts. A major site of such oppression is
in Islamic courts, where husbands possess authority to
pronounce divorce – while their subordinate wives
humbly accept the decree and persevere, silently enduring
the hardships that result. In stark contrast to such stereotypic
images of gender relations in Islamic societies, Hirsch's
beautifully written and powerful book focuses on the discursive
production and reproduction of gender in Swahili Muslim
courts. In so doing, it offers a quite different view of
gender relations in Islamic society. In rich, fine-grained
linguistic detail, Hirsch analyzes how legal processes
in divorce cases not only reproduce but also undermine
and transform dominant cultural images of gender. |
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ISSN: | 0047-4045 1469-8013 |
DOI: | 10.1017/S0047404500343044 |