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1 out of every 5 women living in the world today is a Muslim woman,
a ratio that is projected to be 1 out of every 4 by year 2020. Although
no conveniently typical "Muslim Woman" exists, this lecture
will examine the myths and the realities of the perceived "Muslim
Woman."
To
secure a lost order and "Islamicize" the already Muslim
Afghanistan, the Taliban established their authority with a massive
campaign to "purify" public spaces of women. Like the
ruling elite in Saudi Arabia, the military junta in Sudan, the FIS
in Algeria, and the Islamic Republic of Iran (in its early days),
they denied women many of their basic human rights.
Does
Islam advocate women's oppression or is it simply in the name of
Islam that women are denied their rights? Which Islamic texts or
injunctions, if any, are the source of such prohibitive laws? Why
are women so central to discourses of modernity and counter-modernity
in the Islamic world?
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About
Ms. Milani: Farzaneh Milani is Associate Professor of Persian
and Studies in Women and Gender at the University of Virginia.
Born and raised in Iran, Milani received her B.A. in French Literature
from California State University at Hayward and completed her
graduate studies in Comparative Literature at the University of
California in Los Angeles. She taught Persian Language and Literature
at UCLA for four years before coming to the University of Virginia
in 1986. Past president of the Association of Middle Eastern Women
Studies in America, Milani was the recipient of Alumni Teaching
Award in 1998. She is the author of "Veils and Words: The
Emerging Voices of Iranian Women Writers" (chosen as one
of the "12 most indispensable books written in English about
Iran in the last twenty years"); guest editor of two special
issues of "Nimeye Digar," and co-translator (with Kaveh
Safa) of "A Cup of Sin: Selected Poems of Simin Behbahani."
Milani has written over 60 articles, book chapters, introductions,
and afterwards in Persian and English and lectured at over 100
colleges and universities nationally and internationally. Her
poems have been published in "Nimeye Digar," "Par,"
"Barrayand," "Daneshju," "Omid,"
and "Avaye Portland." 