Humanizing the Sacred

In recent years, global attention has focused on how women in communities of Muslims are revitalizing Islam by linking interpretation of religious ideas to the protection of rights and freedoms. Humanizing the Sacred demonstrates how Sunni women activists in Malaysia are fracturing institutionalized Islamic authority by generating new understandings of rights and redefining the moral obligations of their community. Based on ethnographic research of Sisters in Islam (SIS), a nongovernmental organization of professional women promoting justice and equality, Basarudin examines SIS members' involvement in the production and transmission of Islamic knowledge to reformulate legal codes and reconceptualize gender discourses. By weaving together women's lived realities, feminist interpretations of Islamic texts, and Malaysian cultural politics, this book illuminates how a localized struggle of claiming rights takes shape within a transnational landscape. It provides a vital understanding of how women "live" Islam through the integration of piety and reason and the implications of women's political activism for the transformation of Islamic tradition itself.

"Azza Basarudin tells the story of [Sisters in Islam] in this finely detailed feminist ethnography. . . . This comprehensive study of SIS will certainly be of interest to scholars of Southeast Asia and anyone interested in Muslim women’s movements."

"Humanizing the Sacred is a valuable contribution to the literature on Malaysian civil society, feminism, and Islam; on women’s activism within Muslim communities globally; and on the ongoing dialectic between scripture and culture in any religious community, but especially within Islam. The book will be of interest to anthropologists, scholars of religion (particularly Islam), and both area specialists and those focused on women’s/gender studies or feminism. . . . The book is sure to inspire both thoughtful reflection and lively debate, in Malaysia and elsewhere."

"Basarudin's book is a significant contribution to understanding the distinct dynamics of Muslim feminism in Southeast Asia, the region with the largest Muslim community in the world. It is also an important work in a line of scholarship that is dedicated to deconstructing the orientalist binary of the ‘secular’ and the ‘religious’, especially in their gendered forms in the context of post 9/11 politics."

"Humanizing the Sacred is a welcome addition to the study of women’s movements and Islamic feminism. . . .This book is therefore a timely and important read. Its accessible language makes it suitable not just for undergraduate and postgraduate students alike, but also readers who are interested in understanding issues of feminism, rights and equality in Islam, especially in Malaysia."

"A diverse range of insightful analyses supported by feminist ideas, interviews, and histories. The book provides a solid critique of patriarchal discourses dominating Muslim identity politics in Malaysia."