Book Review: Reproductive Rights as Human Rights: Women of Color and the Fight for Reproductive Justice by Zakiya Luna

Abstract

traditional training or even access to Arabic. Elevating English as a sacred language opened interpretive possibilities to lay people, including both women and non-Arabic speakers. Rather than seeking to prove they were just as competent at interpreting the Quran as men, the WMA’s speakers argued that their embodied and experiential knowledge as women made them more competent interpreters of sacred text (Chapter 3). Similarly, social justice was both a valid interpretive framework and a source of legitimation for individual members of the community who had worked as activists (Chapter 4). Friday lectures at the WMA thus constructed American Islam as a womanist, social justice-oriented religion whose roots were in Black struggle. The WMA is open to Muslims of all sects as well as to non-Muslims. But as Ali shows in Chapter 5, attempting intrafaith reform and interfaith solidarity is politically complicated in the context of Islamophobia. On the one hand, rising hate crimes against Muslims meant the need for interfaith work was high. On the other hand, inviting non-Muslims into the WMA subjected the space to the often critical and patronizing gaze of liberal feminism. Ali’s careful, nuanced analysis makes this a worthy read for anyone interested in the question of gender and authority in American religion.