Book Review 

Women in the Qur'an, Traditions 
and Interpretation 

By Barbara Freyer Stowasser. Oxford, UK: Oxford Univer-

sity Press, 1994, 206 pp. 

It takes a book like Barbara Freyer Stowasser's Women in the 
Qur'an, Traditions and Interpretation to help extricate the complex 
images of Muslim women from the gross overgeneralization character-
istic of popular western media. Truly understanding that complexity 
requires a look at all of the components that make up the Islamic world-
view, from its primary sources ideologically to its cultural history as it 
has affected the lives of Muslims. Such a look has been offered in 
Stowasser's book. 

I was very excited by the cross-referential methodology proposed by 
the author in her introduction and her actual use of it throughout the text. 
She moves among Qur'anic passages, earlier tafasir, hadith traditions, as 
well as among contenders in modem Islamic discourse: modernists, tra-
ditionalists, and fundamentalists (pp. 5-7). As a result, the reader views 
different responses to ideas about specific women from the Qur'anic text 
while knowing precisely the source of certain ideas. 

This is not the usual diatribe that confuses indiscriminately fact with 
mythology, intellectual tradition with popular culture, and results in mis-
informing the already ill-informed reader. Moreover, Stowasser avoids 
the other popular extreme: diminishing everything to a single factor, such 
as gross misogyny, for example. Although she distinguishes between the 
various strains that make up a complex picture, she does not merely 
regurgitate the historical legacy but rather offers critical analysis and 
demonstrates her capability in deciphering the various components in the 
internal Islamic debates as well. 

Perhaps the complexity of the cross-referential methodology limits the 
breadth of the subject matter. We can understand how complex notions of 
the place of Muslim women in society have resulted from these various 
references, even though we get no hint at what that place is from this work. 
The characters analyzed are limited to the specific female characters given 
individual attention in the Qur'anic text and to the wives of the Prophet. 
These models of virtue and .struggle, failure and frustration, can and have 



Book Reviews 269 

provided markers for the goals and aspirations of Muslim women in social 
contexts. 

How they are markers was not the goal of this particular work, a fact 
that indicates its extra-Islamic methodological framework. Knowledge 
in Islam is that which must be used. To merely discuss these characters 
without making direct reference to how they might be and have been 
used in the context of Muslim society places this work into the category 
of theory. This can be seen as a positive asset, despite her statement that 
"women's issues have consistently played a major role" in the current 
moral debates where women "'symbolize main aspects of the Islamic 
struggle for the maintenance of indigenous values and 'cultural authen-
ticity"' (p. 5). 

Thus, the first part of this book presents specific female characters 
believed to be actual historical figures who lived before the advent of 
Islam: Eve (the first woman); the wives of Noah, Lot, and Abraham; 
Zulaykha; the sisters and natural and adopted mothers of Moses; Bilq1s; 
and Mary. In her treatment of these women, we are not given any infor-
mation about their relationship to women in real Islamic social contexts. 
Instead, we are presented with an understanding of paradigmatic shifts 
on questions of doctrine and ethics within a context of some internal 
consistency. 

In the second part, the focus is on the significant women in the 
Prophet's life during the budding Islamic community in Madinah. Her 
conclusion is that "Qur'anic legislation on the Prophet's domestic affairs 
progresses ... in the direction of increasing restraint not increasing 'liber-
ation,' " (p. 102), which does not include a clear definition of either liber-
ation or restraint. Neither does it supply the indicative "chronological" evi-
dence that such a statement might warrant. It is implied from the text that 
"women's secluded space, concealing clothing and unfitness for public 
activity" is the author's equivalent of "restraint" (p. 99). Thus issues like 
hijiib are covered. 

At first, the discussion of hijiib follows the pattern and method 
established throughout the work in order to show the variety of respons-
es to a single phenomenon. However, as the single most em-phasized 
item of discourse outside the consideration of particular women as men-
tioned in the Qur'an or who are significant in early Islamic history, the 
purpose of this discussion runs at cross-purposes with the focus of the 
remainder of the book. It is rightfully pointed out, via Qasim Am1n's 
understanding, that the hijiib was a cultural symbol of "institutionalized 
restriction on women that consisted of sexual segregation, domestic 
seclusion ... " (p. 127), with the modem equivalent, due to socioeconom-
ic necessity and expanded education for women, of the "garment" worn 
by many "urban middle and lower middle class." Even after her lengthy 
discussion, however, it remains a complex and much misunderstood 
issue. 



270 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 12:2 

Of the nearly two hundred pages, the notes cover sixty pages and are 
by far the "best" part of the book, especially for the non-Arabic reader. 
Stowasser's work is extremely well documented, and I would recom­
mend it to specialists and students of Islamic thought and the issue of 
women. 

Amina Wadud-Muhsin 
Women's Studies Department 

Virginia Commonwealth University 
Richmond, Virginia