Lila Abu-Lughod Knihy

Frequent reports of honor killings and abuse have led to a Western consensus that Muslim women need rescuing. The author, an anthropologist with thirty years of experience studying Arab women, challenges this notion. She explores the complexities of Muslim women's lives, questioning whether generalizations about Islamic culture adequately explain their struggles and examining the motivations behind those advocating for their rights. Through her research in various Muslim communities, she grapples with the disparity between the popular image of victimized women and the multifaceted realities she has encountered. By presenting detailed vignettes of ordinary Muslim women's lives, she illustrates that gender inequality cannot solely be attributed to religion. Instead, factors like poverty and authoritarianism, which are not exclusive to the Islamic world and are influenced by global interconnections involving the West, often play a more significant role. The conventional Western narrative surrounding oppression, choice, and freedom fails to capture the nuances of these women's experiences. This work critiques a mindset that has justified foreign interventions, including military actions, in the name of rescuing women from Islam, while also portraying the actual experiences and challenges these women face.

Groundbreaking essays by Palestinian women scholars on the lives of Palestinians within the state of Israel. Most media coverage and research on the experience of Palestinians focuses on those living in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip, while the sizable number of Palestinians living within Israel rarely garners significant academic or media attention. Offering a rich and multidimensional portrait of the lived realities of Palestinians within the state of Israel, Displaced at Home gathers a group of Palestinian women scholars who present unflinching critiques of the complexities and challenges inherent in the lives of this understudied but important minority within Israel. The essays here engage topics ranging from internal refugees and historical memory to women's sexuality and the resistant possibilities of hip-hop culture among young Palestinians. Unique in the collection is sustained attention to gender concerns, which have tended to be subordinated to questions of nationalism, statehood, and citizenship. The first collection of its kind in English, Displaced at Home presents on-the-ground examples of the changing political, social, and economic conditions of Palestinians in Israel, and examines how global, national, and local concerns intersect and shape their daily lives