Summary Of Islam By Fatima Mernissi

In the same line of thought, Fatima Mernissi’ seminal work The forgotten Queens of Islam comes to confirm the important role of women throughout history. In which, she deals with the issue of women and sovereignty in Islam. The book introduces various stories of women throughout the Islamic history, Mernissi argues: Despite decrees from Mecca, opposition from the caliphs, and the opportunism of political men, 15 Muslim women sovereigns ascended the thrones of Muslim states between the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries, holding all the official insignia of sovereignty…and seven others were Islamic rulers in the Maldives and Indonesia.
In the last chapter, Abouzeid’s images of subverting power/relations got another dimension. As the female protagonist, Aisha represents the free, intellectual and independent woman who travels around the world participating in scholarly meetings and …show more content…
She introduces the story of Aisha as the protagonist alongside other stories. By way of example, the story of Latifa who is, as the author states it, “the product of a pure Fesi family”, she is the example of the ‘modern’ girl who wears “shirts backward, zipper in front…even more worse she smoked cigarettes, the only one at school who dared.” Latifa did not finish her studies and dropped out from school without graduation. The story of Latifa ended tragically as she challenges her father who was a “well known politician”, when she married a French divorce with three children, to become later on a belly dancer.
The subversion of power/relations in Abouzeid’s novel appears also in the power of women in their relationship with men. As they are no more in a week position, victimized and oppressed, as they can be sometimes the oppressors of others, and the novel is plenty of examples. Abouzeid reflects on that in the following