Aysha Hidayatullah

Last updated

Aysha Hidayatullah is an Associate Professor of Islamic Studies in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of San Francisco. [1] She is most known for her work critiquing feminist interpretations of the Qur'an, Feminist Edges of the Qur'an.

Contents

Education

Hidayatullah received her BA in Women Studies at Emory University, and both her Master's and PhD Degree in Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. [2]

Career

Hidayatullah began teaching undergraduate courses on Islam, race, gender and ethics at the University of San Francisco in 2008. [2] Her research focuses on feminist interpretations of Islamic text, representations of women and femininity in the Islamic tradition, the racialization of Islam in the United States, representations of Muslim women in the United States, and the pedagogy of Islamic studies. [2] She has published a number of works on these topics, most noteworthy being her book Feminist Edges of the Qur'an.

Hidayatullah is the co-founder and co-chair of the American Academy of Religion's Islam, Gender, Women unit, with the goal of developing the field of gender and women in Islam. [2] She has worked on numerous projects addressing religious diversity and Islamophobia in her field. One of which was being part of the leadership team for a pedagogical workshop on "Teaching Against Islamophobia" co-sponsored by the American Academy of Religion and the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion. [2]

Feminist Edges of the Qur'an

Hidayatullah's book is the first comprehensive examination of Islam and the Qur'an that follows the hermeneutics of feminism in its interpretation. [3] She gives an overview of the 20th century exegetical tradition of Islamic feminists, and subsequently responds to and critiques their conclusions. [4] Her feminist interpretation of the Qur'an asserts gender equality and justice as the foundation of Islamic morality. Hidayatullah challenges traditional interpretive traditions of the Qur'an by revealing the assumptions of the text to be in favour of feminist and LGBTQ+ movements. [5]

Publications

Awards and honors

Related Research Articles

Feminist theology is a movement found in several religions, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Neopaganism, Baháʼí Faith, Judaism, Islam, Christianity and New Thought, to reconsider the traditions, practices, scriptures, and theologies of those religions from a feminist perspective. Some of the goals of feminist theology include increasing the role of women among clergy and religious authorities, reinterpreting patriarchal (male-dominated) imagery and language about God, determining women's place in relation to career and motherhood, studying images of women in the religions' sacred texts, and matriarchal religion.

Liberalism and progressivism within Islam involve professed Muslims who have created a considerable body of progressive thought about Islamic understanding and practice. Their work is sometimes characterized as "progressive Islam". Some scholars, such as Omid Safi, differentiate between "Progressive Muslims" and "Liberal advocates of Islam".

Fazlur Rahman Malik, commonly known as Fazlur Rahman, was a modernist scholar and Islamic philosopher from today's Pakistan. Fazlur Rahman is renowned as a prominent liberal reformer of Islam, who devoted himself to educational reform and the revival of independent reasoning (ijtihad). His works are subject of widespread interest and criticism in Muslim-majority countries. He was protested by more than a thousand clerics, faqihs, muftis, and teachers in his own country and banished.

Farhat Naseem Hashmi is a Pakistani-Canadian controversialIslamic scholar and preacher. She is the founder of the Al-Huda Institute, a network of conservative Islamic religious schools for women.

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 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Dammen McAuliffe</span> American educator and scholar of Islam (born 1944)

Jane Dammen McAuliffe is an American educator, scholar of Islam and the inaugural director of national and international outreach at the Library of Congress. She is a president emeritus of Bryn Mawr College and former dean of Georgetown College at Georgetown University. As a specialist in the Qur'an and its interpretation, McAuliffe has edited the six-volume Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān and continues to lead the editorial team for the online edition of the work.

Riffat Hassan is a Pakistani-American theologian and a leading Islamic feminist scholar of the Qur'an.

Mercy Amba Ewudziwa Oduyoye is a Ghanaian Methodist theologian known for her work in African women's theologies and theological anthropology. She is currently the Director of the Institute of African Women in Religion and Culture at Trinity Theological Seminary, Ghana. She founded the Circle of Concerned African Theologians in Ghana in 1987 to promote the visibility and publishing agenda of African women Theologians.

In feminist theory, kyriarchy is a social system or set of connecting social systems built around domination, oppression, and submission. The word was coined by Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza in 1992 to describe her theory of interconnected, interacting, and self-extending systems of domination and submission, in which a single individual might be oppressed in some relationships and privileged in others. It is an intersectional extension of the idea of patriarchy beyond gender. Kyriarchy encompasses sexism, racism, ableism, ageism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-Catholicism, homophobia, transphobia, classism, xenophobia, economic injustice, the prison-industrial complex, colonialism, militarism, ethnocentrism, speciesism, linguicism and other forms of dominating hierarchies in which the subordination of one person or group to another is internalized and institutionalized.

<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.

Musawah is a global movement for equality and justice in the Muslim family and family laws, led by 'Islamic feminists' "seeking to reclaim Islam and the Koran for themselves", applying progressive interpretations of sacred texts usually referred as feminist tafsir. The name "Musawah" comes from an Arabic word that translates as "equality". It was founded in 2009.

Hermeneutics of feminism in Islam is a system of interpreting the sacred texts of that religion, the Quran and Sunnah. Hermeneutics is the theory and methodology of interpretation, especially of sacred texts, and Islamic feminism has a long history upon which to draw. Muslim feminists reinterpret gendered Islamic texts and challenge interpretive traditions to promote the ideas of gender equality.

Bahar Davary is an Iranian-American religious studies scholar and Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of San Diego. She is known for her work on comparative study of religion and Islamic studies.

Sarojini Nadar is a South African theologian and biblical scholar who is the Desmond Tutu Research Chair in Religion and Social Justice at the University of the Western Cape.

Sa'diyya Shaikh is a South African scholar of Islam and feminist theory. She is a professor of religion at the University of Cape Town. Shaikh studies Sufism in relation to feminism and feminist theory. Shaikh is known for work on gender in Islam and 'Ibn Arabi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theresa A. Yugar</span> Latina feminist liberation theologian

Theresa A. Yugar is a Latina feminist liberation theologian, notable for her work on the 17th-century nun, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.

Fulata Lusungu Mbano Moyo is a Malawian systematic and feminist theologian who is an advocate for gender justice.

Fatima Seedat is a South African feminist, Islamic scholar and women's rights activist. She is known for her scholarly work on gender and Islamic law, and Islam and feminism.

Debra Mubashshir Majeed was an American religious historian, activist and womanist.

References

  1. ↑ "Aysha Hidayatullah". Los Angeles Review of Books. Archived from the original on 2021-05-13. Retrieved 2021-05-12.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Ozguzer, Selin (2015-06-29). "Aysha Hidayatullah". University of San Francisco. Retrieved 2021-05-12.
  3. ↑ Duderija, Adis (2015). "Toward a Scriptural Hermeneutics of Islamic Feminism". Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion. 31 (2): 45–64. doi:10.2979/jfemistudreli.31.2.45. ISSN   8755-4178. JSTOR   10.2979/jfemistudreli.31.2.45. S2CID   201774960.
  4. ↑ Ballandalus (2014-05-24). ""Feminist Edges of the Qur'an": A Summary Outline". Ballandalus. Retrieved 2021-05-13.
  5. ↑ "Daily Trojan | Religious scholars examine gender, sexuality". dailytrojan.com. 7 September 2016. Retrieved 2021-05-13.
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.