Asma Lamrabet

Last updated
Asma Lamrabet
أسماء المرابط
Born1961
Rabat, Morocco
NationalityMoroccan
Known forMuslim feminist activist

Asma Lamrabet (Rabat, Morocco, 1961) is a Moroccan doctor, Islamic feminist, scholar and author.

Contents

Personal life

Asma Lamrabet was born in Rabat. She currently resides in Rabat, Morocco. She considers her education to be occidental. [1] She is married with one child. [2]

Career

Trained in medicine, she worked as a volunteer doctor in Spain and Latin America. She mainly worked in Chile and Mexico for eight years starting in (1995). She came into contact there with Liberation Theology, which caused her to examine her own religion. [3]

From 2004 until 2007, she returned to Morocco, where she gathered a group of Muslim women interested in researching and reflecting upon Islam and intercultural dialog. [4]

In 2008, she became president and a board member of International Group of Studies and Reflection on Women and Islam (GIERFI), based in Barcelona. [5] GIERFI has members and experts from at least eight countries including the United Kingdom, France, the United States and Morocco. Their mission is to help create a new female Muslim consciousness. [6]

In (2011) she became Director of Studies and Research Center on Women's Issues in Islam of (Rabita Mohammadia des Ulemas) under the patronage of King Mohammad VI. As director, she organized an international seminar for women across the three large Abrahamic religions. [7]

She published English and French articles that explore contentious issues, such as interfaith marriage and religious reform, in a Muslim context. [8]

She is a third-way feminist who revises sacred Islamic texts. She has been compared to Amina Wadud and Margot Badran due to their shared belief that the interpretations that underlie Islamic Law from the 9th century were excessively patriarchal and must be reinterpreted. [9] Lamrabet has also cited Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak as intellectual inspiration to resist the hegemony of Western feminism. [10]

Third way feminist

"Third-way" is a term coined by Doris H. Gray and is a humanistic approach to Islamic feminism. It attempts to reunite the two Islamic sects that “presuppose the existence of a basic set of human values that reaches across borders and cultures”. [3] Currently, it is used mainly by Moroccan feminists. Lamrabet and her peers re-interpret the sacred texts in order to show women as independent beings rather than relational to men. Lamrabet's works are an example of how to apply third way feminism, because she examines the sacred texts in a scholarly manner, while remembering the cultural context in which they were written. [4] Lamrabet also believes in a particular type of secularism that is based in Islam, rather than Western conceptions of it. She believes that religion should not be used for personal or political gain. [11]

Criticism

Her work provoked critics who argued that this approach does not tackle the important issues, such as violence towards women and polygamy sufficiently. Another critique held that third-way feminists lack sufficient theological knowledge and background to correctly interpret the texts. Her work has been described as conceptually and methodically weak. Her work was said to “border on the kind of Islamic fundamentalist propaganda familiar from the Moroccan Islamic political activist, Nadia Yassine” and her work in identity is “antiquated in the relevant sociological debates”. [4]

Awards

In 2013, she was awarded the Social Sciences Award by the Arab Woman Organization for her book, Femmes et hommes dans le Coran: quelle égalité?. [12]

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fatema Mernissi</span> Moroccan feminist writer and sociologist (1940–2015)

Fatema Mernissi was a Moroccan feminist writer and sociologist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tariq Ramadan</span> Swiss Muslim scholar (born 1962)

Tariq Ramadan is a Swiss Muslim academic, philosopher, and writer. He was a professor of contemporary Islamic studies at St Antony's College, Oxford and the Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Oxford, but since 2018 has been taking an agreed leave of absence due to being held in prison following two rape allegations. He is a senior research fellow at Doshisha University in Japan, and is also a visiting professor at the Université Mundiapolis in Morocco. He was a visiting professor at the Faculty of Islamic Studies at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar, and used to be the director of the Research Centre of Islamic Legislation and Ethics (CILE), based in Doha. He is a member of the UK Foreign Office Advisory Group on Freedom of Religion or Belief. He was listed by Time magazine in 2000 as one of the seven religious innovators of the 21st century and in 2004 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world and was voted by Foreign Policy readers as one of the top 100 most influential thinkers in the world and Global Thinkers. Ramadan describes himself as a "Salafi reformist".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amina Wadud</span> American Islamic scholar (born 1952)

Amina Wadud is an American Muslim theologian. Wadud serves as visiting professor at Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies and was also a visiting scholar at Starr King School for the Ministry. Wadud has written extensively on the role of women in Islam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Assia Djebar</span> Algerian feminist novelist (1936–2015)

Fatima-Zohra Imalayen, known by her pen name Assia Djebar, was an Algerian novelist, translator and filmmaker. Most of her works deal with obstacles faced by women, and she is noted for her feminist stance. She is "frequently associated with women's writing movements, her novels are clearly focused on the creation of a genealogy of Algerian women, and her political stance is virulently anti-patriarchal as much as it is anti-colonial." Djebar is considered to be one of North Africa's pre-eminent and most influential writers. She was elected to the Académie française on 16 June 2005, the first writer from the Maghreb to achieve such recognition. For the entire body of her work she was awarded the 1996 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. She was often named as a contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Islamic feminism is a form of feminism concerned with the role of women in Islam. It aims for the full equality of all Muslims, regardless of gender, in public and private life. Islamic feminists advocate for women's rights, gender equality, and social justice grounded in an Islamic framework. Although rooted in Islam, the movement's pioneers have also utilized secular, Western, or otherwise non-Muslim feminist discourses, and have recognized the role of Islamic feminism as part of an integrated global feminist movement.

Asma Barlas is a Pakistani-American writer and academic. Her specialties include comparative and international politics, Islam and Qur'anic hermeneutics, and women's studies.

Fouzia Rhissassi is a Moroccan professor of social sciences at the faculty of arts at Ibn Tofail University in Kenitra, Morocco. Currently she holds a position of the UNESCO Chair on Women Rights.

Feminism in France is the history of feminist thought and movements in France. Feminism in France can be roughly divided into three waves: First-wave feminism from the French Revolution through the Third Republic which was concerned chiefly with suffrage and civic rights for women. Significant contributions came from revolutionary movements of the French Revolution of 1848 and Paris Commune, culminating in 1944 when women gained the right to vote.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christine Delphy</span> French sociologist and feminist activist (born 1941)

Christine Delphy is a French feminist sociologist, writer and theorist. Known for pioneering materialist feminism, she co-founded the French women's liberation movement in 1970 and the journal Nouvelles questions féministes with Simone de Beauvoir in 1981.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colette Guillaumin</span> French sociologist (1934–2017)

Colette Guillaumin, was a sociologist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research and a French feminist. Guillaumin is an important theorist of the mechanisms of racism and sexism, and relations of domination. She is also an important figure in materialist feminism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fatima Sadiqi</span> Linguist

Fatima Sadiqi is a senior professor of Linguistics and Gender Studies at Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, in Fez, Morocco.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eugénie Le Brun</span>

Eugénie Le Brun also known as Madame Rushdi was a French-born early Egyptian feminist intellectual, influential salon host, and close friend of Huda Sha'arawi.

<i>"Believing Women" in Islam</i> 2002 book by Asma Barlas

"Believing Women" in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur'an is a 2002 book by Asma Barlas, published by the University of Texas Press. According to Barlas, the Qur'an does not support patriarchy and modern day Muslims were not properly interpreting the text. She argues that the Qur'an supports equal spousal and marital rights and does not differentiate among sex and gender. Barlas attributes incorrect interpretations of the Qur'an to the hadith, shariah, and sunnah. Barlas stated that men were mostly the ones who had developed shariah.

Latifa El Bouhsini is a university professor at the Faculty of Education Sciences in Rabat, and has been a member of the National Office of the School of Citizenship for Political Studies, ECEP, in Rabat since 2012. Bouhsini is also a member of the national office of the Moroccan Organization of Human Rights She is a writer and a leftist feminist activist who holds a PhD in history and civilizations and writes prolifically about the history of the feminist movement in Morocco. Bouhsini is also a trainer specialized in gender and women's rights, and she is a speaker at the National Human Rights Council.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fatou Sow (sociologist)</span> Senegalese feminist sociologist

Fatou Sow is a Senegalese feminist sociologist specialising in sociology of gender.

Anne Zelensky is a French feminist activist and author. She is known for being a prominent figure in the Mouvement de libération des femmes, which took place in 1970 that advocated to consolidate fundamental rights for women in France.

Femmes solidaires is a French feminist association in France, founded during the Second World War under the name Union des femmes françaises (UFF). The movement works for the defense and advancement of women's rights, gender equality, the liberal movement and international solidarity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rabéa Naciri</span> Moroccan human and womens rights activist

Rabéa Naciri is a Moroccan human rights activist and expert on gender and women's rights in Morocco. She is a founding member of the Democratic Association of Moroccan Women (ADFM), a human rights non-governmental organization, that has been described as the "cornerstone of feminism in Morocco".

References

  1. ↑ Lamrabet, Asma; Ramadan, Tariq (1 April 2004). Musulmane tout simplement (in French). Tawhid. ISBN   9782848620602.
  2. ↑ Belhami, Yasmine. "Asma Lamrabet". 100femmes.ma. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
  3. 1 2 Gray, Doris H. "The Many Paths to Gender Equality in Morocco". Oxford Islamic Studies Online. Archived from the original on 16 August 2014. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
  4. 1 2 3 Sabra, Martina (4 January 2008). ""We Have to Re-Appropriate the Source Texts"". Qantara.de . Retrieved 27 August 2023.
  5. ↑ "Asma lamrabet". Asma lamrabet: Biography. Asma lamrabet. tous droits réservés. Retrieved 7 March 2016.
  6. ↑ "Qui sommes-nous?". Groupe International D'Etude Et De Reflexion Sur Les Femmes D'Islam. 11 November 2014. Archived from the original on 11 November 2014. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
  7. ↑ "Reconnaissance de la parité et de la légitimité intellectuelle des femmes au sein du champ religieux". Libération. 13 November 2014. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
  8. ↑ Jahangir, Junaid (21 March 2017). "Muslim Women Can Marry Outside The Faith". HuffPost . Retrieved 28 August 2023.
  9. ↑ Yafai, Faisal al (28 August 2009). "Translating feminism into Islam". The Guardian . Retrieved 27 August 2023.
  10. ↑ "Meet Asma Lamrabet, Morocco's feminist polymath". Your Middle East (in Swedish). Retrieved 23 February 2017.
  11. ↑ Lindsey, Ursala (11 April 2018). "Can Muslim Feminism Find a Third Way?". The New York Times . Retrieved 27 August 2023.
  12. ↑ "Asma Lamrabet". TheNordicCenter.org. Retrieved 28 August 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.