Women’s Writing and Muslim Societies

This is the first book to evaluate works by Western and Muslim women writing about the Muslim experience in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, and the United States. In addition, Sharif Gemie looks at how women’s writing about Muslim societies has changed over the past century, from the playful and humorous works by pioneering female travelers like Freya Stark and Edith Wharton, to more recent accounts marked by fear, hostility, and even disgust, such as Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran and Betty Mahmoody’s Not Without My Daughter. Gemie also identifies and examines a new wave of female Muslim writers whose work touches on problems of integration, identity crises, and the changing nature of Muslim cultures.