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Suzanne Gauch. Liberating Shahrazad: Feminism, Postcolonialism, and Islam. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2007, 224 pages. Paper $59.99.
Suzanne Gauch illuminates the legacy of Shahrazad as a complex one. Its mission is to overthrow oppressive images of Muslim women. She mainly criticizes Western translators, even Hollywood or Disney incarnations of one or another of her retold stories like Aladdin, Sinbad the Sailor, Alibaba and the Forty Thieves. She claims that they make Shahrazad silent by making her voice absent. "Instead of presenting the stories they tell as the product of Scheherazade's brilliance, daring initiative, and political acumen, filmed versions of Nights stories depict women lavishly, yet revealingly, attired harem beauties, slaves to the pleasure of their masters" (ix).