1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910213854103321

Autore

Edwin Shirin

Titolo

Privately Empowered [[electronic resource] ] : Expressing Feminism in Islam in Northern Nigerian Fiction / / Shirin Edwin

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Evanston, Illinois, : Northwestern University Press, 2016

ISBN

0-8101-3369-5

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource

Disciplina

823.0099669

Soggetti

Islam - Nigeria

Feminism - Religious aspects - Islam

Muslim women in literature

Nigerian fiction (English) - History and criticism

Nigeria In literature

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction: Conjugating feminisms: African, Islamic as African-Islamic discourse -- Connecting vocabularies: a grammar of histories, politics, and priorities in African and Islamic feminisms -- Noetic education and Islamic faith: personal transformation in the stillborn -- Historical templates and Islamic disposition: personal journeys in the virtuous woman -- Spiritual legacies and worship: personal spaces in the descendants -- Frequent functions and references: personal solutions in sacred apples and destiny.

Sommario/riassunto

Privately Empowered responds to the lack of adequate attention paid to Islam in Africa in comparison to the Middle East and the Arab world. Shirin Edwin points to the embrace between Islam and politics that has limited Islamic feminist discourse to regions where it evolves in tandem with the nation-state and is commonly understood in terms of activism, social affiliations, or struggles for legal reform. Edwin examines the novels of Zaynab Alkali, Abubakar Gimba, and Hauwa Ali due to their emphases on personal engagement, Islamic ritual in the quotidian, and observance of Qur’anic injunctions. Analysis of these texts connects the ways Muslim women in northern Nigeria balance their spiritual habits in ever changing configurations of their private domains. The



spiritual universe of African Muslim women may be one where Islam is not the source of their problems or their political activity, but a spiritual activity devoid of political forms.