Re-inventing Islam: Gender and the Protestant Roots of American Islamophobia

In Helen Moody Stuart’s 1920 novel Fatmeh: A Common Story of MissionSchools for Moslem Girls, Stuart creates a fictional Syrian family whereone day young Fatmeh tells her parents she wants to attend the Christianmissionary school to learn to read. “What do you want with reading?”retorts Fatmeh’s mother. Her mother scolds her and tells her to attendto her household chores. It is Fatmeh’s father, however, who encourageshis daughter to attend the school, as it might help her marriage prospects(129). Stuart’s novel, published during the ascent of American missionaryactivity in the Middle East, was written to demonstrate that young ArabMuslim girls can achieve agency from a backward religion and overbearingfamily by converting to Christianity in early twentieth century Syria.It was intended to inspire young women to consider becoming effectiveand life-changing missionaries as it was to encourage congregations tosupport missionary activity. Fatemeh is only one of several fascinatingfiction and non-fiction works written by women missionaries, or aboutwomen in the mission field, presented by Deanna Ferree Womack inRe-Inventing Islam.