No Shame for the Sun: Lives of Professional Pakistani Women (Gender, Culture, and Politics in the Middle East) - Hardcover

Haeri, Shahla

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0815629605 ISBN 13: 9780815629603

Publisher: Syracuse University Press, 2002

Synopsis

Conversations with Muslim working women challenge notions of the "veiled" woman as being victimized or unproductive.

About this title

About the Author:

Shahla Haeri is the director of the Women's Studies Program at Boston University. She has published numerous articles and monographs including Law of Desire: Temporary Marriage in Shi'i Iran, also published by Syracuse University Press.

From Publishers Weekly:

"The women portrayed in... feminist literature on Muslim societies seem to lead lives very distant from the authors who write about them," comments Boston University professor Haeri. In this unusual, groundbreaking work, Haeri's subjects are not the customary "veiled women, peasant women, tribal women, urban poor women," but six middle- and upper middle-class educated professional Pakistani women, with whom she has much in common. Each individual oral history is supplemented by Haeri's lucid commentary, adding depth and clarity to what outsiders may view as complex class and ethnicity ties. In each case, Haeri examines the roles of identity, violence, legitimacy, marriage, kinship and religion in the women's lives. Although many of them have experienced trauma, they have secured autonomous lives of professional achievement, often in arranged marriages. They hold doctorates, manage estates, write poetry and establish schools; among them are a Sufi feminist thinker and a political activist. Haeri, an American Muslim born in Iran, brings unique qualities to this study, she is knowledgeable about Islam but admittedly still learning about Pakistan. As she observes, "What has been seen in the Muslim world is, paradoxically, not the visible, unveiled professional woman but the veiled Muslim woman, the sight of whom does not... add much to one's knowledge of women in the Muslim world." With rich detail, Haeri brings six women vibrantly into view and provides readers with a much-needed lens adjustment.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Syracuse University Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0815629605
• ISBN 13: 9780815629603
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 490