Abstract
Eighteen contributors, all women – all missiologists – from Western and Islamic backgrounds, want to be heard amidst the apparent dominance of male missiologists. The topic is also women – those from the Muslim world. Each of the six sections has two responses; this helps to apply or critique the first writer’s contribution – a useful method of making us think through topics such as ‘identity’ (Moyra Dale and helpful responders Sarah Yoon and Iris Funk, not just philosophically but practically among those leaving one belief system for another), ‘salvation’ (debated through Miriam Adeney’s contribution) and ‘pain’ (the excellent article by Ida Glaser) … Early on, more philosophical academic writing made for more difficult reading but the responses elucidated them in practical ways. By the end of the book, the challenge of being a woman is raised – starting with the UK, not just a developing world context. Cathy Ross brings this to a higher profile than that of work among the Muslim women of the world. Is it a feminist cry for attention, equality etc? There are indeed many issues to address – trafficking, violence, sexual abuse – indeed ‘five faces of oppression’. So the answer brings more questions on our missional response.
In that my direct involvement in the Muslim world has now been at a distance of time, I have been aware since the later 1970s of the missiological controversies over reaching the Muslim world, through being involved with South East Asian Muslims, women in particular during the 1980s and in more recent decades those from the Farsi speaking areas of the Middle East now in the West; I am not convinced women were not heard well enough. In fact, if we had been too voluble perhaps the quiet work among many a Muslim women’s group might not have been able to go on. There were women writers – Vivienne Stacey for one. There were many other women as followers of Isa al Masih simply getting on with the job in translation work, media, sitting with women in villages, towns … Are men so ignorant of the work done by women over the past 150 years? For example, those women in North Africa (Lillian Trasher) or Western China (Mildred Cable et al.) who made great inroads into communities introducing Isa Al Masih. However, Miriam Adeney voices the complaint (p. 117) that single women have not even been accepted by male dominant agencies recently (even sent home – to Brazil!) for Muslim work because they would apparently not be acceptable to the population.
Do Muslim women need saving? Veiled they might be, but powerful in influence many are also, from what I have found. Binary cultures? Mono-cultures? Since God is God, he can show us who to reach and how. God calls to and God works through the weak and those who humble themselves to become as weak to the apparently weak. Saving from what? Their own fears and being abused? What of their eternal position? Many know those issues full well, feel the blame, shame and fear and thus their need for forgiveness from God, yet have no assurance of it without fulfilling law after law after cultural norm so that they cannot achieve it. Meeting felt needs, conversing, relating, sharing … followers of Isa can explain their faith to those they meet. Frustrations are inevitable. Closed doors literal.
Stereotyping both women as not heard and Muslim women as abused, undervalued (true though it is) and yet also powerfully influential in some circumstances, as Miriam Adeney using Laila Abu-Lughod’s book relates, has now meant a volume by women on women – not perhaps against men, but assertively stating ‘We’re here; listen up!’. A pendulum swings? The challenge is out but is anyone listening? Is anyone acting on it? Yes. The authors are trying to be heard.
The book is valid in missiological terms both technically and confessionally. The idea that women ‘have been silenced’ and that feminism has to raise its banner higher still seems to me to be beyond total necessity. Yes, in both East and West – and South – there are abuses of women. Yes, men might begin to assert the same of themselves – in fear of losing their status. Confidence in who we are – both in God’s image – needs to be modelled by us, in both genders. In Christian circles, we women can assert enough influence if and when we need – as with this book and its conference.
So, do read this book; it introduces the complexities of opening the doors on women in Islamic cultures, and on women in mission, that is necessary for a wider awareness in the missiological world. Certainly, Cathy Ross brings the challenge: she brings five potential missiological responses from where women are already to get alongside, going beyond, even using the hiddenness, the hospitality, the healing strengths already among women. The second of the two responses highlights the theological implications – with an awareness of how not to respond from a sensitivity to her MENA context. So, when we work out the ramifications as to what can be done to improve matters, that theological and missiological sensitivity is essential. Does it mean a second volume is necessary? Once this one has been digested.