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CALL FOR CHAPTERS: MUSLIM  WOMEN’S DIGITAL GEOGRAPHIES (edited work; tentative publication date 2012)Call for chapters for an edited collection  "Muslim Women's Digital Geographies". The collection aims to bring  together research on Muslim women's diverse activity on the Internet  that may span personal writing, debates in discussion groups, political  activism, networking and other forms of interaction with other people  and audiences. The collection is interdisciplinary, and welcomes  perspectives from all disciplines, be they Islamic studies, social  sciences, technology studies, gender studies, fashion studies,  linguistics, art, politics and many others.Scholarship  on Muslim women in the recent years has extensively focused on the  Islamic dress-code as the main signifier of faith. However, there are  many other, under-researched aspects of Muslim women’s lives, including  their use of  new technologies for religious purposes. Most notably, Muslim women use  the Internet as a platform for creation of gender-specific  understanding of Islamic scriptures. These alternative readings question  the validity of patriarchal, mainstream interpretations that have  shaped lives of generations of Muslim women who have long challenged  them from within academia (see Wadud, 2001; Barlas, 2006) and locally,  in ‘face-to-face’  grassroots contexts such as women’s organisations and  mosque study circles (see Afshar, 1998; Mahmood, 2005; Badran, 2006;  Bhimji, 2009).The Internet is increasingly seen as a  facilitator of such interpretive practices that can now be conducted  through collaboration of Muslim women from different geographic and  cultural locations. This geographic and cultural diversity is likely to  have an impact in terms of originality of the scriptural readings, as  such Internet-based interpretations have the potential  to be much more inclusive than previous, localised understandings of  Islam. This is particularly important for grassroots women who have been  largely excluded from decision-making in Islamic religious structures  in spite of the rise of Islamic feminism. As a result, the Internet is  perceived by some Muslim women as a platform enabling them to create and  publishtheir interpretations of the Qur’an and the Hadith to many  audiences.The collection Muslim Women’s Digital  Geographies retains a focus on intersections of the Islamic faith and  technology. Exploration of different ways in which Muslim women employ  new technologies, in particular the Internet, to develop and emphasise  their identity and agency as Muslim women(especially in the context of  stereotypical media representations of Islam in the West) will  contribute to more complex and sophisticated understanding of their  lives and experiences.The book is expected  to be published by Brill in the Women and Gender series.Contact details: Dr Anna Piela - annapiela@googlemail.com.