Masooda Bano – författare

Why do so many well-intentioned efforts to improve education in developing countries fall short? Despite decades of donor-driven initiatives, millions of children remain out of school, and even those who attend often struggle to learn. In Fixing Governance from Below, Masooda Bano critically examines the repeated failures of decentralizing education systems and promoting community participation as solutions to learning crises. Drawing on compelling research from Pakistan, India, Nigeria, and Indonesia, the book reveals how international aid programs--designed based on what works in Western contexts--routinely misjudge local realities. At the same time, national governments implement costly, donor-approved reforms to gain international credibility, while real, on-the-ground issues remain unaddressed. Challenging conventional wisdom, Bano questions the assumption that more participation, more training, and more decentralization automatically lead to better educational outcomes. She highlights how different tiers of governance are inter-linked and so are the incentive structures: while bottom-up measures can enhance accountability in countries with strong national-level oversight, they cannot replace it. Further, the author illustrates why top-down mandates for "community involvement" often fail, whereas organic, locally-driven participation tends to succeed.With sharp insights and thought-provoking analysis, this book calls for a fundamental shift in how we approach educational reform--one that respects local contexts, prioritizes genuine accountability, and moves beyond one-size-fits-all solutions. More than just an academic critique, it is a call to rethink the strategies shaping the future of millions of children.

Since serious social reforms were first announced in Saudi Arabia in 2017, the country has witnessed dramatic change. This has led to the significant curtailment of the religious establishment's authority, a visible shift in public culture, and the emergence of a dynamic, evolving relationship between the state and its citizens. This book captures the country’s profound social changes and identifies the factors that triggered—and later accelerated—their pace.The book draws on rich ethnographic data from repeated visits to Saudi Arabia between 2014 and 2024, including over 250 interviews with religious actors, state officials and ordinary Saudis—especially youth. Rather than relying solely on a Western analytical lens, the book follows the latest approaches to change in Saudi Arabia, demonstrating that state-society relations in the country must be studied through the agency of Saudi youth and the state's proactive efforts to cultivate active citizenship.The Saudi Arabia of today presents a markedly transformed social landscape, a stark departure from the restrictive norms once shaped by Wahhabi teachings. This book argues that the ongoing social reforms offer a unique insight into the Crown Prince’s ambition to win political legitimacy and build a base of support among the youth.

Since serious social reforms were first announced in Saudi Arabia in 2017, the country has witnessed dramatic change. This has led to the significant curtailment of the religious establishment's authority, a visible shift in public culture, and the emergence of a dynamic, evolving relationship between the state and its citizens. This book captures the country’s profound social changes and identifies the factors that triggered—and later accelerated—their pace.The book draws on rich ethnographic data from repeated visits to Saudi Arabia between 2014 and 2024, including over 250 interviews with religious actors, state officials and ordinary Saudis—especially youth. Rather than relying solely on a Western analytical lens, the book follows the latest approaches to change in Saudi Arabia, demonstrating that state-society relations in the country must be studied through the agency of Saudi youth and the state's proactive efforts to cultivate active citizenship.The Saudi Arabia of today presents a markedly transformed social landscape, a stark departure from the restrictive norms once shaped by Wahhabi teachings. This book argues that the ongoing social reforms offer a unique insight into the Crown Prince’s ambition to win political legitimacy and build a base of support among the youth.

Islamic schools, or madrasas, have been accused of radicalizing Muslims and participating, either actively or passively, in terrorist networks since the events of 9/11. In Pakistan, the 2007 siege by government forces of Islamabad's Red Mosque and its madrasa complex, whose imam and students staged an armed resistance against the state for its support of the "war on terror," reinforced concerns about madrasas' role in regional and global jihad. By 2006 madrasas registered with Pakistan's five regulatory boards for religious schools enrolled over one million male and 200,000 female students. In The Rational Believer, Masooda Bano draws on rich interview, ethnographic, and survey data, as well as fieldwork conducted in madrasas throughout the country to explore the network of Pakistani madrasas. She maps the choices and decisions confronted by students, teachers, parents, and clerics and explains why available choices make participation in jihad appear at times a viable course of action.Bano's work shows that beliefs are rational and that religious believers look to maximize utility in ways not captured by classical rational choice. She applies analytical tools from the New Institutional Economics to explain apparent contradictions in the madrasa system—for example, how thousands of young Pakistani women now demand the national adoption of traditional sharia law, despite its highly restrictive limits on female agency, and do so from their location in Islamic schools for girls that were founded only a generation ago.

Thirty percent of foreign development aid is channeled through NGOs or community-based organizations to improve service delivery to the poor, build social capital, and establish democracy in developing nations. However, growing evidence suggests that aid often erodes, rather than promotes, cooperation within developing nations. This book presents a rare, micro level account of the complex decision-making processes that bring individuals together to form collective-action platforms. It then examines why aid often breaks down the very institutions for collective action that it aims to promote. Breakdown in Pakistan identifies concrete measures to check the erosion of cooperation in foreign aid scenarios. Pakistan is one of the largest recipients of international development aid, and therefore the empirical details presented are particularly relevant for policy. The book's argument is equally applicable to a number of other developing countries, and has important implications for recent discussions within the field of economics.

The Cambridge Companion to Women and Islam provides a comprehensive overview of a timely topic that encompasses the fields of Islamic feminist scholarship, anthropology, history, and sociology. Divided into three parts, it makes several key contributions. The volume offers a detailed analysis of textual debates on gender and Islam, highlighting the logic of classical reasoning and its enduring appeal, while emphasizing alternative readings proposed by Islamic feminists. It considers the agency that Muslim women exhibit in relation to their faith as reflected in women's piety movements. Moreover, the volume documents how Muslim women shape socio-political life, presenting real-world examples from across the Muslim world and diaspora communities.  Written by an international team of scholars, the Companion also explores theoretical and methodological advances in the field, providing guidance for future research. Surveying Muslim women's experiences across time and place, it also presents debates on gender norms across various genres of Islamic scholarship.

The Cambridge Companion to Women and Islam provides a comprehensive overview of a timely topic that encompasses the fields of Islamic feminist scholarship, anthropology, history, and sociology. Divided into three parts, it makes several key contributions. The volume offers a detailed analysis of textual debates on gender and Islam, highlighting the logic of classical reasoning and its enduring appeal, while emphasizing alternative readings proposed by Islamic feminists. It considers the agency that Muslim women exhibit in relation to their faith as reflected in women's piety movements. Moreover, the volume documents how Muslim women shape socio-political life, presenting real-world examples from across the Muslim world and diaspora communities.  Written by an international team of scholars, the Companion also explores theoretical and methodological advances in the field, providing guidance for future research. Surveying Muslim women's experiences across time and place, it also presents debates on gender norms across various genres of Islamic scholarship.

Since the 1970s, movements aimed at giving Muslim women access to the serious study of Islamic texts have emerged across the world. In this book, Masooda Bano argues that the creative spirit that marked the rise and consolidation of Islam, whereby Islam inspired serious intellectual engagement to create optimal societal institutions, can be found within these education movements. Drawing on rich ethnographic material from Pakistan, northern Nigeria and Syria, Bano questions the restricted notion of agency associated with these movements, exploring the educational networks which have attracted educated, professional and culturally progressive Muslim women to textual study, thus helping to reverse the most damaging legacy of colonial rule in Muslim societies: the isolation of modern and Islamic knowledge. With its comparative approach, this will appeal to those studying and researching the role of women across Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, as well as the wider Muslim world.

In this book, Masooda Bano presents an in-depth analysis of a new movement that is transforming the way that young Muslims engage with their religion. Led by a network of Islamic scholars in the West, this movement seeks to revive the tradition of Islamic rationalism. Bano explains how, during the period of colonial rule, the exit of Muslim elites from madrasas, the Islamic scholarly establishments, resulted in a stagnation of Islamic scholarship. This trend is now being reversed. Exploring the threefold focus on logic, metaphysics, and deep mysticism, Bano shows how Islamic rationalism is consistent with Sunni orthodoxy and why it is so popular among young, elite, educated Muslims, who are now engaging with classical Islamic texts. One of the most tangible results of this revival is that Islamic rationalism - rather than jihadism - is emerging as one of the most influential movements in the contemporary Muslim world.

Since the 1970s, movements aimed at giving Muslim women access to the serious study of Islamic texts have emerged across the world. In this book, Masooda Bano argues that the creative spirit that marked the rise and consolidation of Islam, whereby Islam inspired serious intellectual engagement to create optimal societal institutions, can be found within these education movements. Drawing on rich ethnographic material from Pakistan, northern Nigeria and Syria, Bano questions the restricted notion of agency associated with these movements, exploring the educational networks which have attracted educated, professional and culturally progressive Muslim women to textual study, thus helping to reverse the most damaging legacy of colonial rule in Muslim societies: the isolation of modern and Islamic knowledge. With its comparative approach, this will appeal to those studying and researching the role of women across Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, as well as the wider Muslim world.

British multiculturalism is increasingly under attack by politicians across the spectrum, accused of fostering ‘parallel communities’ unwilling to embrace ‘British values’. This book challenges such claims through a decade of research within British Muslim communities, including those most often labelled ‘parallel’. It shows how mosques and dar ul ulooms (Islamic higher education institutions) across the UK are breaking with earlier insular approaches, stressing that British values are not only compatible with Islam but worthy of respect. Among second- and third-generation British Muslims—including the new cohorts of imams trained in British seminaries—there is a clear aspiration to integrate as productive citizens. The book highlights that the small minority of disaffected Muslim youth, frequently amplified in media and policy debates, tend to come from disadvantaged socio-economic or troubled family backgrounds exposing them to negative experiences from the wider society. Rather than being the cause of their alienation, Islamic teachings often provide a moral compass that can steer them away from destructive choices when supported positively.Crucially, the book argues that British multiculturalism must be strengthened, not dismantled. Fears that such policies entrench the marginalization of women within minority communities are overstated. In practice, Muslim women are at the forefront of change—as mothers, educators, and preachers—actively shaping debates on what it means to be proudly British and Muslim. Their empowerment has been made possible precisely because multiculturalism offers both opportunities for personal growth and the autonomy to define their relationship to faith.

Claims abound that Saudi oil money is fuelling Salafi Islam in cultural and geographical terrains as disparate as the remote hamlets of the Swat valley in Pakistan and sprawling megacities such as Jakarta. In a similar manner, it is often regarded as a fact that Iran and the Sunni Arab states are fighting proxy wars in foreign lands. This empirically grounded study challenges the assumptions prevalent within academic as well as policy circles about hegemonic power of such Islamic discourses and movements to penetrate all Muslim communities and societies. Through case studies of academic institutions the volume illustrates how transmission of ideas is an extremely complex process, and the outcome of such efforts depends not just on the strategies adopted by backers of those ideologies but equally on the characteristics of the receipt communities.In order to understand this complex interaction between the global and local Islam and the plurality in outcomes, the volume focuses on the workings of three universities with global outreach, and whose graduating students carry the ideas acquired during their education back to their own countries, along with, in some cases, a zeal to reform their home society.

A comparative analysis of key Islamic authority platforms and their debatesAt the turn of the twenty-first century, scholarship and policy debate on Islam and Muslim societies has come to focus primarily on Islam's ability to make young Muslims gravitate towards anti-modernity movements. Many attribute Islamic militancy, as well as the general socio-economic and political stagnation experienced in some Muslim societies, to Islamic theological or legal dictates. Yet Islamic scholarly tradition is highly pluralistic, and today's leading Islamic authority structures are developing competing conceptual and methodological approaches which vary greatly in their ability to engage with societal change.This volume focuses on the four most influential Islamic authority structures with a visible following among Muslims around the globe. It makes a major contribution to refining our understanding of the plurality of Islamic tradition in contemporary times, helping to counter the dominant narrative of an inevitable clash of civilisations. It presents evidence of great creative energy within many Islamic scholarly platforms (old as well as new); an energy which aims to provide dynamic answers to modern day challenges from within the Islamic legal and theological tradition.Key featuresFocuses on four influential Sunni Islamic scholarly platforms with a global following: Al-Azhar (Egypt); Saudi Salafism (Saudi Arabia); Deoband (South Asia); Diyanet (Turkey)Each case study traces the institution's intellectual genealogy, contemporary political standing, and the discourses of its scholars on Islamic law and social change

At the turn of the twenty-first century, scholarship and policy debate on Islam and Muslim societies has come to focus primarily on Islam’s ability to make young Muslims gravitate towards anti-modernity movements. Many attribute Islamic militancy, as well as the general socio-economic and political stagnation experienced in some Muslim societies, to Islamic theological or legal dictates. Yet Islamic scholarly tradition is highly pluralistic, and today’s leading Islamic authority structures are developing competing conceptual and methodological approaches which vary greatly in their ability to engage with societal change. This volume focuses on the four most influential Islamic authority structures with a visible following among Muslims around the globe. It makes a major contribution to refining our understanding of the plurality of Islamic tradition in contemporary times, helping to counter the dominant narrative of an inevitable clash of civilisations. It presents evidence of great creative energy within many Islamic scholarly platforms (old as well as new); an energy which aims to provide dynamic answers to modern day challenges from within the Islamic legal and theological tradition.

A comparative analysis of key Islamic authority platforms and their debatesAt the turn of the twenty-first century, scholarship and policy debate on Islam and Muslim societies has come to focus primarily on Islam's ability to make young Muslims gravitate towards anti-modernity movements. Many attribute Islamic militancy, as well as the general socio-economic and political stagnation experienced in some Muslim societies, to Islamic theological or legal dictates. Yet Islamic scholarly tradition is highly pluralistic, and today's leading Islamic authority structures are developing competing conceptual and methodological approaches which vary greatly in their ability to engage with societal change.This volume covers the new Islamic authority centres emerging in the West. It makes a major contribution to refining our understanding of the plurality of Islamic tradition in contemporary times, helping to counter the dominant narrative of an inevitable clash of civilisations. It presents evidence of great creative energy within many Islamic scholarly platforms (old as well as new); an energy which aims to provide dynamic answers to modern day challenges from within the Islamic legal and theological tradition.Case StudiesThis volume presents case studies of six new Islamic scholarly platforms in the West that are proving particularly effective in attracting young Muslims:Zaytuna CollegeThe Neo-Traditionalism of Tim WinterThe International Institute of Islamic ThoughtTariq Ramadan and the Center for Islamic Legislation and EthicsYasir Qadhi and 'Reasonable Salafism'New Deobandi Institutions in the West

At the turn of the twenty-first century, scholarship and policy debate on Islam and Muslim societies has come to focus primarily on Islam’s ability to make young Muslims gravitate towards anti-modernity movements. Many attribute Islamic militancy, as well as the general socio-economic and political stagnation experienced in some Muslim societies, to Islamic theological or legal dictates. Yet Islamic scholarly tradition is highly pluralistic, and today’s leading Islamic authority structures are developing competing conceptual and methodological approaches which vary greatly in their ability to engage with societal change. This volume covers the new Islamic authority centres emerging in the West. It makes a major contribution to refining our understanding of the plurality of Islamic tradition in contemporary times, helping to counter the dominant narrative of an inevitable clash of civilisations. It presents evidence of great creative energy within many Islamic scholarly platforms (old as well as new); an energy which aims to provide dynamic answers to modern day challenges from within the Islamic legal and theological tradition.

Starting in late 2017, Saudi Arabia embarked on a series of reforms reversing many socially restrictive policies long associated with Salafism. These developments have triggered critical questions about the future of Salafism, crucially: is this the end for the most influential puritanical Islamic reform movement of the 20th century? This book introduces the history of the rise and spread of Salafism during the 20th century as a global Islamic reform movement. It also explains Salafi tools of methodological reasoning: traditionally used to justify highly conservative positions, they now appear equally effective in defending more liberal life choices. The collection will help readers to appreciate the diversity of Salafi movements, as well as the significance of the ongoing socio-economic and political changes within Saudi Arabia and the wider Muslim world that are enabling shifts to this conservative Islamic scholarly tradition.

Examines the impact of reforms within Saudi Arabia on Salafi intellectual thought, dawa movements and Jihadi groups Explores the factors shaping social liberalisation within Saudi ArabiaPresents examples of reforms within Salafi intellectual thoughtShows dynamism and adaptability within Salafi da'wa movements in different country contextsAddresses the critical question of growing infighting within Salafi jihadi groupsThis book introduces the history of the rise and spread of Salafism during the 20th century as a global Islamic reform movement. It also explains Salafi tools of methodological reasoning: traditionally used to justify highly conservative positions, they now appear equally effective in defending more liberal life choices. The collection will help readers to appreciate the diversity of Salafi movements, as well as the significance of the ongoing socio-economic and political changes within Saudi Arabia and the wider Muslim world that are enabling shifts to this conservative Islamic scholarly tradition.Starting in late 2017, Saudi Arabia embarked on a series of reforms reversing many socially restrictive policies long associated with Salafism. These developments have triggered critical questions about the future of Salafism, crucially: is this the end for the most influential puritanical Islamic reform movement of the 20th century?