A powerful reminder of the importance of women to the forging of community.
Khoja-Moolji explores the centrality of women to Ismaili diasporic communities.
As members of a sub-sect of Shia Islam, tightknit Ismaili communities make up part of the diaspora of Muslims throughout Southeast Asia, East Africa, and the West. Indeed, because of the legacies of colonialism—from territorial annexations to the partition of India and Pakistan—displacement has been a central theme of Ismaili life over the past century. A professor of Muslim Studies at Georgetown University, the author was born in Pakistan to an Ismaili family. The book begins with the story of her mother, Farida, who has taken care of fellow Ismaili immigrants to the United States for more than two decades. The book’s analysis focuses on the central role of women in maintaining Ismaili communities throughout the world through the grassroots creation of a “protective web, an infrastructure of care.” Their activities, from cooking during religious festivals and washing ritual objects to taking care of elders and emptying bedpans at refugee camps, the book convincingly argues, sustain Ismaili culture and communities by “producing sociability, repairing past trauma, and furnishing continuity from one generation to the next.” While traditional Ismaili histories focus on top-down narratives, “[w]e still know little, however, about the lives of ordinary Ismailis,” Khoja-Moolji notes. Though the book’s impressive inclusion of more than 570 endnotes and a 16-page bibliography speaks to the author’s solid grasp of printed primary sources and academic work on Ismailis, this book’s most striking feature is its centering of “more hidden and sometimes intangible practices of placemaking.” Various sources of information, including oral history interviews conducted by the author, family cookbooks, and unpublished journals, take readers into the kitchens, community centers, and clinic waiting rooms where Ismaili women share stories, recipes, and family photographs. The author of two previous academic books on Muslim women from Southeast Asia, Khoja-Moolji is an expert on the topic, but she’s careful to avoid academic jargon, embracing an accessible writing style that is supported by a wealth of photographs and maps.
A powerful reminder of the importance of women to the forging of community.Pub Date: July 18, 2023
ISBN: 978-0197642023
Page Count: 279
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Cogent, well-timed ideas for meeting today’s biggest challenges.
Helping liberals get out of their own way.
Klein, a New York Times columnist, and Thompson, an Atlantic staffer, lean to the left, but they aren’t interrogating the usual suspects. Aware that many conservatives have no interest in their opinions, the authors target their own side’s “pathologies.” Why do red states greenlight the kind of renewable energy projects that often languish in blue states? Why does liberal California have the nation’s most severe homelessness and housing affordability crises? One big reason: Liberal leadership has ensnared itself in a web of well-intentioned yet often onerous “goals, standards, and rules.” This “procedural kludge,” partially shaped by lawyers who pioneered a “democracy by lawsuit” strategy in the 1960s, threatens to stymie key breakthroughs. Consider the anti-pollution laws passed after World War II. In the decades since, homeowners’ groups in liberal locales have cited such statutes in lawsuits meant to stop new affordable housing. Today, these laws “block the clean energy projects” required to tackle climate change. Nuclear energy is “inarguably safer” than the fossil fuel variety, but because Washington doesn’t always “properly weigh risk,” it almost never builds new reactors. Meanwhile, technologies that may cure disease or slash the carbon footprint of cement production benefit from government support, but too often the grant process “rewards caution and punishes outsider thinking.” The authors call this style of governing “everything-bagel liberalism,” so named because of its many government mandates. Instead, they envision “a politics of abundance” that would remake travel, work, and health. This won’t happen without “changing the processes that make building and inventing so hard.” It’s time, then, to scrutinize everything from municipal zoning regulations to the paperwork requirements for scientists getting federal funding. The authors’ debut as a duo is very smart and eminently useful.
Cogent, well-timed ideas for meeting today’s biggest challenges.Pub Date: March 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781668023488
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Avid Reader Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
