Call for Book Chapter Submissions: Exploring Muslim Women's Flourishing

We are looking for scholars, activists, educational practitioners, writers, students, and thinkers to contribute chapters for our upcoming edited book, which explores themes related to Muslim women’s flourishing and empowerment. Over the years, we have seen an emerging body of ‘Islamic feminist’ thought. Some of this thinking is unrecognisable from liberal feminist thought, uncritically adopting key concepts such as gender-sex, patriarchy, and female liberation. This thinking reproduces Islamophobic tropes about the place of women in Muslim societies and Islam. Islamic feminist thought has generated a range of responses, from wholesale rejection to wholesale approval. This edited collection problematises either end of this spectrum. It recognises the need to develop a vision for Muslim women’s emancipation. Yet, at the same time, it recognises that this vision must be rooted within the Quran and Sunnah. This call is thus an invitation to Muslim women from across the world to draw on the Quran and Sunnah to develop a vision of what Muslim women’s flourishing looks like.

We are specifically looking for contributions that address (without being limited to) the following topics and themes:

1. Historical emergence of liberal feminist thought

2. Critique of Islamic feminist thought

3. Quran and sunnah-based foundations of Muslim women’s flourishing

4. Critique of imperial feminism

5. Educational provisions and inadequacies for Muslim girls and women

6. Muslim women in employment, education, leadership,

7. Muslim women and reproductive health and rights

8. Safety from domestic violence and abuse

9. Safety from racial violence on the street

10. Media representation and cultural norms

11. Intersectionality and global inequalities

12. Environmental and climate justice

13. Anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, anti-racist activism

14. Pornography and its impacts

Some possible questions to reflect on: 

  • What are the key challenges and issues that Muslim women face in their communities and societies at large?

  • What would Muslim women’s flourishing look like in different spaces (health, family, education, employment, mosques, etc)?

  • Where are the gaps in our communities and societies that need filling to enable Muslim women to flourish?

  • What provisions do we need to offer Muslim women within our communities and, more broadly, to enable their flourishing?

  • What are the main obstacles to the project of Muslim women’s flourishing

This edited collection is not orientated for an academic audience. Readers will be aimed at Muslim men and women between the ages of 18-30. Thus, papers based on lived experience, work history, and personal biography are welcome. The focus is open, and we are interested in papers that discuss these themes and issues from a wide-ranging set of perspectives and concerns.

Please send us your chapter abstract (not exceeding 400 words) and a short biography by 28 February 2025. Acceptance decisions will be communicated by 25 March 2025. We expect you to submit your book chapter to us upon acceptance of the abstract by 25 June 2025.

Each contributor will have approximately 2000-5000 words for the book chapter.  

Please direct any questions to the editor, Dr Amina Shareef, here