Sharif Gemie

"French Muslims" provides a critical perspective on Muslim politics and experiences in contemporary France, the European country with the largest Muslim population. Drawing from the work of four Muslim thinkers and activists - Chahdortt Djavann, Fadela Amara, Tariq Ramadan, and Houria Bouteldja - this volume examines issues such as the veil, integration, the role of the school, the traditions of the French republic, and the legacy of the French empire. In addition, Gemie analyzes the most important organizations and structures representing French Muslim opinion today, including the French Council of the Muslim Faith and the Union of Islamic Organizations of France.

New Voices in Contemporary France

French Muslims

Women’s Writing and Muslim Societies looks at the rise in works concerning Muslim societies by both western and Muslim women – from pioneering female travellers like Freya Stark and Edith Wharton in the early twentieth century, whose accounts of the Orient were usually playful and humorous, to the present day and such works as Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran and Betty Mahmoody’s Not Without My Daughter, which present a radically different view of Muslim Societies marked by fear, hostility and even disgust. The author, Sharif Gemie, also considers a new range of female Muslim writers whose works suggest a variety of other perspectives that speak of difficult journeys, the problems of integration, identity crises and the changing nature of Muslim cultures; in the process, this volume examines varied journeys across cultural, political and religious borders, discussing the problems faced by female travellers, the problems of trans-cultural romances and the difficulties of constructing dialogue between enemy camps.

The Search for Dialogue, 1920-present

Women's Writing and Muslim Societies

Brian Ireland

A History

The Hippie Trail

Tracing the history of the Hippie Trail and those who followed it, this book explores the motivations and experiences of these young travellers, mapping their everyday interactions with locals and the joys and hardships of independent budget travel.

A History, 1957-78

Fiona Reid

Laure Humbert

The period of the 'long' Second World War (1936-1948) was marked by mass movements of diverse populations: 60 million people either fled or were forced from their homes. This book considers the Spanish Republicans fleeing Franco's Spain in 1939, the French civilians trying to escape the Nazi invasion in 1940, and the millions of people displaced or expelled by the forces of Hitler's Third Reich. Throughout this period state and voluntary organisations were created to take care of the homeless and the displaced. National organisations dominated until the end of the war; afterwards, international organisations - the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agency and the International Refugee Organisation - were formed to deal with what was clearly an international problem. Using case studies of displaced people and of relief workers, this book is unique in placing such crises at the centre rather than the margins of wartime experience, making the work nothing less than an alternative history of the Second World War.

Refugees and Relief Workers in an Era of Total War 1936-48

Outcast Europe

An original perspective on the experience of refugees and relief workers.

Incorporated into France nearly five hundred years ago, Brittany has never experienced a strong nationalist movement. However, somewhat paradoxically, in recent years signs of a sense of cultural separation from France have grown more evident, raising fundamental questions about the processes of nation formation. By covering two centuries of Breton history, Sharif Gemie provides a thorough grounding in the complex politics of identity in Brittany. Brittany’s conflicted status is elucidated through a discussion of how these notions of identity are represented in a variety of forms such as literature, political debates, festivals, and popular protest.

The Invisible Nation

Brittany, 1750-1950

This is the first history of the Hippie Trail. It records the joys and pains of budget travel to Kathmandu, India, Afghanistan and other ‘points east’ in the 1960s and 1970s. Written in a clear, simple style, it provides detailed analysis of the motivations and the experiences of hundreds of thousands of hippies who travelled eastwards. The book is structured around four key debates: were the travellers simply motivated by a search for drugs? Did they encounter love or sexual freedom on the road? Were they basically just tourists? Did they resemble pilgrims? It also considers how the travellers have been represented in films, novels and autobiographical accounts, and will appeal to those interested in the Trail or the 1960s counterculture, as well as students taking courses relating to the 1960s.

Sharif Gemie

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