What Kind of Liberation?

Women and the Occupation of Iraq

By Nadje Al-Ali

2008

First Published

3.81

Average Rating

240

Number of Pages

7H19M

Audio Length

In the run-up to war in Iraq, the Bush administration assured the world that America's interest was in liberation—especially for women. The first book to examine how Iraqi women have fared since the invasion, What Kind of Liberation? reports from the heart of the war zone with dire news of scarce resources, growing unemployment, violence, and seclusion. Moreover, the book exposes the gap between rhetoric that placed women center stage and the present reality of their diminishing roles in the "new Iraq." Based on interviews with Iraqi women's rights activists, international policy makers, and NGO workers and illustrated with photographs taken by Iraqi women, What Kind of Liberation? speaks through an astonishing array of voices. Nadje Al-Ali and Nicola Pratt correct the widespread view that the country's violence, sectarianism, and systematic erosion of women's rights come from something inherent in Muslim, Middle Eastern, or Iraqi culture. They also demonstrate how in spite of competing political agendas, Iraqi women activists are resolutely pressing to be part of the political transition, reconstruction, and shaping of the new Iraq.

Avg Rating

3.81

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Author

Nadje Al-Ali

Author · 4 books

Nadje Sadig Al-Ali (Arabic: نادية صادق العلي‎) is the author of Iraqi Women: Untold Stories From 1948 to the Present. and co-author with Nicola Pratt of What Kind of Liberation? Women and the Occupation of Iraq. Born to an Iraqi father and German mother, and having lived in Egypt for several years and being involved in the Egyptian women's movement, Al-Ali is also Professor of Gender Studies at the Center for Gender Studies at the School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS). Al-Ali graduated from the University of Arizona (BA), University of Cairo (MA) and received a PhD from the anthropology department of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London in 1998. She is currently chairing the Centre for Gender Studies at SOAS. She is also President of the Association of Middle East Women's Studies (AMEWS), and a member of the Feminist Review Collective. Alongside her academic career, Nadje Al-Ali is a political activist and was a founder of the Iraqi British organisation Act Together: Women's Action for Iraq in 2000. She is also a member of the London branch of Women in Black, a worldwide network of women who are against war and violence. Many of her publications reflect the lives of Iraqi women and recent struggle to voice their opinions during the US-led invasion of Iraq. (from Wikipedia)