Reflections on Certain Principles That May Guide a New Commentary (Tafsir) of the Qur’an

The author starts from his experience as a translator of the Qur’an to argue on the need for a new commentary. The aim of such a new approach would be to convey a vision of Islam more in tune with Islamic history. Further, this is also needed in relation to the substantial Muslim communities living outside of the Muslim world. Antecedents are important in this and especially those coming from the so-called literary moment in the 20th-century Qur’an commentary tradition. A new commentary should be conducted by a committee. Additionally, the second part of the paper explores this possibility and what this committee should take care of in this direction, such as gender-consciousness or environment questions.

Gender and Chinese Translations of Chinese American Women’s Literature: Marital Sexual Violence in Amy Tan’s The Kitchen God’s Wife

Comparing three Chinese translations of Amy Tan’s novel The Kitchen God’s Wife (1991), this article explores gender issues in Chinese translations of Chinese American women’s literature from a feminist perspective. Using the feminist concept of female alienation, it explores how feminist consciousness and sexual alienation caused by marital sexual violence in the source text are expressed in the Chinese translations, and how far the translations achieve (feminist) translation equivalence. Special attention is paid to the translators’ gender consciousness and ideologies, as reflected in their translations, in order to explore the role played by gender in the translation of women’s writing.

Women and Matrimony: A Study of Mona Lisa Smile

This study intended to use the film Mona Lisa Smile (1993) as an example to examine how women in the traditional generation of 1950 were gender stereotyped and used to trade themselves off through marriage in consideration of a cost-and-benefit analysis. However, as the change of women’s gender consciousness from the conservative to the feminist in the USA of 1950, women began to realize their potential and subjectivity, hence questing for liberal spirit and autonomy to choose their career and husbands based on love. The researchers used the qualitative method, with both the primary and secondary data, to facilitate a latent-content analysis. After conducting a content analysis of the film and the script of Mona Lisa Smile, the researchers took notes regarding gender stereotyping and conventional gender norms in social interactions and conducted a literature review of Becker’s side bet theory and Homan’s social exchange theory to investigate how women in America in the 1950s were disciplined to meet the expectation of social norms to fit the notion of conventional matrimony, and how people, both men and women, while choosing their mates, seek the maximum interest and minimum cost. The film Mona Lisa Smile lets readers have a chance to see the transformation of a marital relationship from the old days to modern ones. With raised gender consciousness, women may now subject their choices to their own will and, hence, apply a different definition to the word “marriage.”

Maya Angelou’s Battle with Alienation in I know Why the Caged Bird Sings

e themes of the existential crisis have been central in taking up their work in different domains of human experience and exhibit the force of departure from the so-called standardized norms and values of a society. These themes have been taken up by many authors of African American origin. This paper attempts to represent and explain the theme of alienation through an in-depth analysis of Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. The crisis of identity, gender, consciousness, and everything seemingly comes to question in the powerful narratives of these kinds of writings. One such African American author is Maya Angelou. She is one of those who take these themes with great force and tries to free herself from the shackles of the so-called canonized versions of human values and seeks to explore a world in which she recreates an establishment of her new perspectives and freedom of humanity. The paper concludes by showing the struggles for recognition and self-awareness and developing onto a stronger woman pushed by her feeling of alienation.

What Dominates the Female Class Identification? Evidence From China

In advocating gender equality today, we should not only pay attention to women's social status but also call for the women's psychological identification of class equality. What dominates female class identification? To answer this question, based on the data of the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) in 2015, this study constructs a female class identity framework from five aspects: the mother's intergenerational influence, female personal characteristics, lifestyle, gender consciousness, and spouse status. In this study, the ordered logit model is used to empirically analyze the impact of various factors on female class identification, and the results show the following: (1) gender consciousness has a significant impact on female class identification. (2) Lifestyle has a significant impact on the situation of having a spouse. (3) Spouse status has a significant positive effect on female class identification. But (4) the mother's intergenerational influence has no effect on female class identification. Therefore, this paper suggests that we should improve laws and regulations to protect women's normal rights, encourage women to establish an independent and self-improvement character, and enhance the class consciousness of women, especially rural women, in order to achieve the overall improvement of female class and psychological identification.

Maya Angelou’s Battle with Alienation in I know Why the Caged Bird Sings

The themes of the existential crisis have been central in taking up their work in different domains of human experience and exhibit the force of departure from the so-called standardized norms and values of a society. These themes have been taken up by many authors of African American origin. This paper attempts to represent and explain the theme of alienation through an in-depth analysis of Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. The crisis of identity, gender, consciousness, and everything seemingly comes to question in the powerful narratives of these kinds of writings. One such African American author is Maya Angelou. She is one of those who take these themes with great force and tries to free herself from the shackles of the so-called canonized versions of human values and seeks to explore a world in which she recreates an establishment of her new perspectives and freedom of humanity. The paper concludes by showing the struggles for recognition and self-awareness and developing onto a stronger woman pushed by her feeling of alienation.

A Phenomenological Study of Female and Feminist Identities Among Iranian Muslim Immigrant Women

Little is known about Iranian Muslim immigrant women in the US with respect to their female and feminist identities and the interconnections with Islam and immigration. The aim in the current study was to provide detailed answers to the research questions using diagrammatic elicitation, semi-structured individual interviews, and observation as the primary tools for collecting data. Two themes—immigration and experiencing more freedom and autonomy and immigration and different conditions—emerged through diagrammatic elicitation. Five themes emerged during the interviews. These themes included experiencing social change and a new definition of the situation, experiencing different values, empowerment and emancipation, fulfillment of needs, and self-image. Three themes appeared from observation of the participants in the group meetings: gender identity versus national and religious identities, America the land of opportunities, and to be or not be is the question. The current study suggests that the participants are experiencing a sort of gender consciousness and agency.