Susan F. Hirsch, Pronouncing and persevering: Gender and the discourses of disputing in an African Islamic court. (Language and legal discourse.) Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998. Pp. xiii, 360. Hb $48.00, pb $19.00.

Abstract

According to feminist writings, Islamic women lack agency and power, and are oppressed compared to their Western female counterparts. A major site of such oppression is in Islamic courts, where husbands possess authority to pronounce divorce – while their subordinate wives humbly accept the decree and persevere, silently enduring the hardships that result. In stark contrast to such stereotypic images of gender relations in Islamic societies, Hirsch's beautifully written and powerful book focuses on the discursive production and reproduction of gender in Swahili Muslim courts. In so doing, it offers a quite different view of gender relations in Islamic society. In rich, fine-grained linguistic detail, Hirsch analyzes how legal processes in divorce cases not only reproduce but also undermine and transform dominant cultural images of gender.