Women's agency and rituals in mixed and female Masonic orders /
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Women have been structurally part of the masonic enterprise from at least the middle of the 18th century. Yet, little is known about the ways in which they themselves obtained and exercised power to influence the systems they were involved in, in order to adapt them to be more appropriate to their needs. This volume intends to concentrate on two aspects: Women's agency (i.e. the power women gained and exercised in this context) and rituals (i.e. the role of men and women in changing and shaping the rituals women work with). These two aspects are closely related, since it requires some agency to realise changes in existing rituals.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789047425861 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
One foot in Heaven : narratives on gender and Islam in Darfur, West-Sudan /
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This book is based on extensive anthropological field-research in Kebkabiya, a town in Darfur, West-Sudan(1990-1995), when the Islamist government of Sudan had just come to power. The title of the book is a conflation of two main government perspectives on the role of women. These proved to be decisive for the ways in which two classes of working women - low-class market women and highly esteemed female teachers- negotiated their identities within the Islamist moral discourse on gender. The book focuses on the biographic narratives of one woman from each class, which are analysed as part of the multi-layered context in which the woman spoke and acted - and of which the author also formed part. Finally, the author reflects on the war in Darfur as part of a process of identities-in-construction.
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Includes fold-out maps.
Originally presented as the author's thesis (doctoral)--Universiteit Leiden, 2001. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [497]-520) and index. :
9789047422983 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Qur'an, morality and critical reason : the essential Muhammad Shahrur /
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This book presents the work and ideas of the Syrian writer Muhammad Shahrur to the English-speaking world. Shahrur is at the moment the most innovative intellectual thinker in the Arab Middle East. Often described as the 'Martin Luther of Islam,' he offers a liberal, progressive reading of Islam that aims to counter the influences of religious fundamentalism and radical politics. Shahrur's innovative interpretation of the Qur'an offers groundbreaking new ideas, based on his conviction that centuries of historical Islam, including scholarship in the traditional Islamic religious sciences, have obscured or even obliterated the Qur'an's progressive and revolutionary message. That message is one that has endured through each period of human history in which Islam has existed, encouraging Muslims to apply the most contemporary perspective available to interpret the Qur'an's meaning.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [559]-570) and index. :
9789047424345 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.