Book by Queens University Professor Featured in Oxford University Press Summer Campaign

Since its release, Rebellious Wives, Neglectful Husbands by Hadia Mubarak, Ph.D., assistant professor of religion at Queens University of Charlotte, has received positive attention for the way it highlights new interpretations regarding women and gender in the Qur’an. The book was one of five in the field of Islamic studies to be featured in a summer campaign by Oxford University Press that will run through the end of August.

The book engages theological questions that influence the trajectory of Muslim women’s lives in religious-based communities and discusses interpretations of Islam’s most authoritative text spanning from the ninth to twentieth centuries.

“Muslims view the Qur’an as the word of God, verbatim. Because of this, there is so much at stake depending on how the words are interpreted,” Mubarak explained. “What are they saying regarding women’s rights? What are they saying regarding husbands’ authority over their wives? Does God’s divine plan for the world envision an egalitarian world, where men and women are equal in their spirituality and relationships?”

In Rebellious Wives, Neglectful Husbands, Mubarak offers a helpful analysis to answer these questions.

“As I compare commentaries from medieval through modern history, I find a spectrum of interpretation,” she said. “There has never been one single way that the text has been understood as it relates to women and gender. I am hoping that those who want to reconcile faith and feminism can find a way to do so through this work.”

Mubarak does not label the book an Islamic feminist work because she hopes that it will find its way to a wide audience including Muslims who may have a more conservative view of gender and faith. Though she is a Muslim, she employs a historical and analytical approach so as to not project her own faith and beliefs. Mubarak credits her ability to write from a secular perspective to her years spent teaching religious studies in western academia.

“My classes at Queens try to help students understand the historical, political, economic, and cultural factors that affect women’s lives,” said Mubarak. “I tell students at the beginning of class that we must ‘unpack a lot of our conceptual baggage.’ Once we do some of that work together, we look at readings in a similar way that my book does and students, by the end of the course, usually have a much more nuanced viewpoint on the differences between text and human behavior.”

Visit the Oxford University Press Islamic Studies webpage to learn more.