Dib, Naima (2009): D’un Islam textuel vers un islam contextuel. La traduction du Coran et la construction de l’image de la femme. Ottawa: Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa, 209 p.

The condition of women in Islam has been a topical subject for over a century now both in the West and in Muslim-majority countries. With the rise into prominence of women’s studies, the consequent mushrooming of literature delving into women’s roles and identities, and the problematic contact between the West and the Muslim world, the debate around this subject has been attracting even more attention, whether in academia or in the political and media discourse. A plethora of titles are, therefore, published every year by both Muslim and non-Muslim scholars, some criticizing the condition of women under Islam, some presenting apologetic viewpoints, and yet others offering alternative interpretations of Islamic scriptures. Naima Dib’s book, D’un islam textuel vers un islam contextuel: la traduction du Coran et la construction de l’image de la femme, is meant, according to the author (p. 44), as a contribution to this debate from within Translation Studies. Dib intends her book, as the title suggests, to make the case for a contextual reading/translation of the Qur’an that constructs a more positive image of women in Islam. She flaunts her identity as a Muslim woman translator in the jacket’s blurb, thus setting the tone for the whole work. She argues in the opening page that the life of the Muslim woman is “régie par des lois qui sont […] des traductions du Coran” (p. 1), and pleads for a re-reading of the Qur’an that respects its teachings yet is grounded in today’s context and is less androcentric (p. 5). To bring out the complexity of such a reformist project, Dib introduces two main currents in modern Islamic reformism (p. 6-7). The first, represented by Mohammed Abdo, is grounded in religious discourse. It criticizes the practice of polygamy, condemns the blind imitation of early Muslim theologians and calls for a return to the sources, i.e., the authentic Islamic tradition, as the only way to improve the status of women and guarantee social and cultural progress (p. 11). The other current, grounded in social sciences (p. 17), points out the historicity of any interpretation of the Qur’an, criticizes the belief that theologians hold the truth, and calls for new readings that better protect women’s right, particularly with regard to polygamy (p. 39). Dib argues that these reformists paved the way for many Muslim thinkers who all agree that while the Qur’an is sacred, any interpretation thereof is circumscribed by its historical and social context, hence the multiplicity of interpretations (p. 40). Subscribing to this viewpoint, Dib sets out to “débusquer l’androcentrisme à l’oeuvre dans les traductions du Coran et de proposer une lecture plus nuancée qui s’appuie sur le Texte et sur le propos qui le sous-tend” (p. 49). Her research, Dib informs us, is thus “resistant” in that it endeavors to unravel the patriarchal ideology underlying the choices made by the various translators in their respective social and historical contexts (p. 53). As such, it comes as a contribution to the work undertaken by the theorists of the power turn in Translation Studies, particularly Venuti and Niranjana, and the feminists, including Simon and von Flotow (p. 49). To achieve her objective, Dib chooses two verses of the Qur’an that, according to her, most affect the status of women in society, and submits their respective translations into French and English to a semiotic analysis, followed by a sociohistorical diachronic analysis, borrowed and adapted from Toury (p. 50). Dib concludes from her analysis that the translations invariably show a pattern of manipulations that sacrificed the ambivalence characterizing the original verses for a fixed meaning imbued with the patriarchal prejudices …