Sara R. Farris examines the demands for women's rights from an unlikely collection of right-wing nationalist political parties, neoliberals, and some feminist theorists and policy makers. Focusing on contemporary France, Italy, and the Netherlands, Farris labels this exploitation and co-optation of feminist themes by anti-Islam and xenophobic campaigns as "femonationalism." She shows that by characterizing Muslim males as dangerous to western societies and as oppressors of women, and by emphasizing the need to rescue Muslim and migrant women, these groups use gender equality to justify their racist rhetoric and policies. This practice also serves an economic function. Farris analyzes how neoliberal civic integration policies and feminist groups funnel Muslim and non-western migrant women into the segregating domestic and caregiving industries, all the while claiming to promote their emancipation. In the Name of Women's Rights documents the links between racism, feminism, and the ways in which non-western women are instrumentalized for a variety of political and economic purposes.

About the Author
Sara R. Farris is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London, and the author of Max Weber's Theory of Personality: Individuation, Politics, and Orientalism in the Sociology of Religion.

Reviews

"[Farris's] reading of 'femonationalism' as a symptom of neoliberal capitalism gives little hope that a quick or effective solution is possible for the crises at hand. So we are left without certain answers, and that's as it should be."

-- Joan W. Scott * The Nation *
"The pertinence of Farris's volume, especially in the development of immigration policies, is undeniable." -- Visnja Krstic * Cultural Sociology *
"Brilliant. . . . Through [Farris's] careful analysis of the political economic dimensions of femonationalism, certain elements of our contemporary landscape are illuminated with startling and disturbing clarity." -- Catherine Rottenberg * Jadaliyya *
"A brave monograph." -- Judith Whitehead * Monthly Review *
"In the Name of Women's Rights is a timely book with an impressive scope and rich theoretical diversity. . . . A must-read for anyone concerned with the appropriation of feminism or the operation of Islamophobia in contemporary Europe." -- Julie E. Dowsett * International Feminist Journal of Politics *
"Welcome and invigorating." -- Peter Coviello * The Immanent Frame *
"In the Name of Women's Rights is an important and timely contribution to the fields of sociology, gender and women studies, and migration studies. Highly recommended." -- Maya El Helou * Refuge *
"An incisive intervention in how we understand rescue narratives of Muslim and non-Western migrant men as perpetrators of violence against Muslim and non-Western migrant women. . . . An important contribution to a range of fields including but not limited to critical race theory, transnational studies, gender and sexuality studies, political science, and sociology." -- Sasha A. Khan * Feminist Formations *
"A highly readable, insightful and alarming account of the deployment of a discourse of women's rights by racist and nationalist movements in Europe. . . . This is a work that deserves to be widely read." -- Gargi Bhattacharyya * Ethnic and Racial Studies *
"Farris's book is comprehensive, thorough, and masterly in accomplishing her key objective, which is, to draw feminist attention toward a new political economic configuration in which neoliberal conditions, feminist politics of gender equality, and right-wing nationalism coalesce to sustain exploitative ideological and material relations between western and nonwestern women. It is indeed a timely and needed study of the political and ethical costs to feminism of the concurrence of civilizational politics and neoliberal economics and thus has applications beyond the European context." -- Amina Jamal * American Journal of Sociology *



Book Information
ISBN 9780822369745
Author Sara R. Farris
Format Paperback
Page Count 272
Imprint Duke University Press
Publisher Duke University Press
Weight(grams) 386g