Do Muslim Women Need Saving? by Lila Abu-Lughod

She illustrates that the simple image of a woman, or rather a Muslim woman in a veil, coveys the Orientalist assumption of oppression and a need to be saved. She starts by looking at America’s recent use of images of Afghan women in burqas in the campaign to build up support for the War in Afghanistan. In the second half of the book she looks at the West’s obsession with honour crime, and the place of anthropologists in the field of human rights and women’s rights in particular today.

Through these books Abu-Lughod is able to talk about the conception of Islamland (the homogenisation and essentialisation of Islam and Muslims everywhere) as well as gendered Orientalism and the authorising of moral crusades (one of her chapter titles). Her chapters look at publications on Muslim women, both popular ‘non-fiction’ biographies, as well as books on the importance and necessity of saving women, such as Kristof and WuDunn’s Half the Sky. Abu-Lughod examines a number of points to illustrate her stance.

Her overarching theme is that although there is no doubt that some women may need help, the manner in which the West looks upon these women and aims to ‘save’ them reduces the agency of the women to whom they claim to offer help. As she explains, this book is “a long answer to the question of whether Muslim women have rights or need saving” (p.201). Lila Abu-Lughod’s book, Do Muslim Women Need Saving?, expands on her thoughts from an earlier article similarly titled.

Do Muslim Women Need Saving? by Lila Abu-Lughod