REBUILDING COMMUNITY (Displaced Women and the Making Of a Shia Ismaili Muslim Sociality) by Shenila Khoja-Moolji

Rebuilding Community by Shenila Khoja-Moolji is a groundbreaking contribution to History and Religion, shining light on the untold stories of Shia Ismaili Muslim women. Across the twentieth century, Ismaili communities faced repeated displacements, and this book explores how, in the aftermath of upheaval, women became central to the process of rebuilding jamat and sustaining spiritual kinship.

Through oral histories, memory texts, and fieldwork, Shenila Khoja-Moolji details how women who fled East Pakistan and East Africa in the 1970s recreated community in North America. Their acts of care—cooking for congregants, tending to the sick, and preserving collective memory through miracle stories and cookbooks—emerge as vital practices of religious and social life.

Rebuilding Community not only reframes Ismaili history by centering women’s roles but also offers powerful insights into how ethical norms and everyday acts of care sustain community across generations. This work stands as an essential study in both History and Religion, while giving voice to the resilience and creativity of women.