Rana Dajani, PhD – Rita Hauser Fellow, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, and Molecular Cell Biology, Hashemite University, Jordan

Recommended by the World Economic Forum – “Want to See Real Change in the World? These Seven Books will Inspire You”

Series: Social Issues, Justice and Status
BISAC: SOC028000

“Despite the noteworthy accomplishments of feminist theory and practice, it’s easy to see how much still has to change. Reminders of structural sexism, implicit bias, and outright abuse abound, from the Everyday Sexism project to #MeToo. In her book Five Scarves: Doing the Impossible, Rana Dajani interrogates how our conceptions of success and gender equality relate to each other.” READ MORE>>> – Sedeer el-Showk, M.Sc., PhD., full-time freelance writer. Published on the website: Nature Middle East

“An absolutely wonderful read about the aspirations and achievements of a modern woman scientist in contemporary Islam. Dajani uses her own experience to try to forge a cosmopolitan and global approach to the problems of inequality that women everywhere continue to face.” – Evelyn Fox Keller, Professor Emeritus, MIT, Program in Science, Technology and Society, author of Reflections on Gender and Science

“This snapshot of the life, work and thoughts of a remarkable scientist and social advocate at once challenges the reader to rethink basic assumptions and accompanies him or her in revisiting familiar tropes in new settings. With simple prose and confident strides, Dajani introduces topics as different as the challenge of creating world class scientific discovery in the Middle East, the egalitarian organization of domestic responsibilities between parents and children in quotidian family life, the long history of female scientific brilliance in the Arab world, and the extraordinary creation of a global social movement to promote the love of reading among all children. For inspiring millennials to take the world in their hands and insist on realizing their dreams, this book is a must.” – Jacqueline Bhabha, Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; Director of Research François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard University; Jeremiah Smith Jr. Lecturer, Harvard Law School

“Can a breakthrough in stem-cell research revolutionize feminism? Can a scientist apply the scientific method to her own life to find solutions to social problems? In Five Scarves, Jordanian molecular biologist Rana Dajani reveals with passion and cogency how she has explored those possibilities.” READ MORE>>> – Malak Abedalthagafi, physician-scientist, chair of genomics research at King Fahad Medical City and assistant research professor in molecular genetics and neuropathology King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology. Published in the Nature International Journal of Science

“This is a wonderful book, the personal story of a warm and brilliant Jordanian cell biologist. She is passionate about her pioneering scientific work and her vision of how science should be taught to inspire young people and promote new ideas – innovation happens on the margins in all fields. She describes how she gets her students to bring art into thinking about and communicating science. She challenges many stereotypes that Westerners tend to have about Islam, the history of science, and the role of women in the Muslim professional world. She advocates for wide-ranging, worldwide policy and practice that will undermine sexism and enhance women’s opportunities – issues on which the USA is remarkably backward compared to many other countries. She is also founder of We Love Reading, an extremely successful program to involve children in community experiences of reading and listening, a culture-changing experience that is personally empowering. This vivid book is a beautifully written inspiration to women, to scientists, to educators and to social activists everywhere.” – Helen Haste, Emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Bath, England; Visiting professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education

“Rana Dajani rightly rejects the label of “Islamic feminist.” She is a global feminist with a tale to tell that will be surprising to many. Reading her story is like a warm embrace from a close friend.” – Anne-Marie Slaughter, President & CEO, New America

“Account of an incredible and inspiring life journey – how a Jordanian biologist navigated her many worlds deftly, a role model for women with big dreams that transcends geography.” – Priyamvada Natarajan, Professor, Departments of Astronomy & Physics, Yale, author of Mapping the Heavens: The Radical Scientific Ideas That Reveal the Cosmos