Asma Barlas | |
---|---|
Born | Lahore, Pakistan | 10 March 1950
Education | Kinnaird College (B.A.); University of the Punjab (M.A.); University of Denver (M.A.; Ph.D.) |
Years active | 1976–present |
Notable works | "Believing Women" in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur'an |
Asma Barlas (born 10 March 1950) [1] is a Pakistani-American writer and academic. Her specialties include comparative and international politics, Islam and Qur'anic hermeneutics, and women's studies. [2]
Barlas was born in Pakistan in 1950. [3] She earned a bachelor of arts in English literature and philosophy from Kinnaird College and a master's degree in journalism from the University of the Punjab. She also holds a master's degree and Ph.D. in international studies from the University of Denver. [4] [5]
Barlas was one of the first women to be inducted into the foreign service in 1976. [4] [6] Six years later, she was dismissed on the orders of General Zia ul Haq. [4] [6] She worked briefly as assistant editor of the opposition newspaper The Muslim [7] before receiving political asylum in the United States in 1983. [4]
Barlas joined the politics department of Ithaca College in 1991. She was the founding director of the Center for the Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity for 12 years. She held Spinoza Chair in Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam in 2008. [4] [8]
Barlas has focused on the way Muslims produce religious knowledge, especially patriarchal exegesis of the Qur'an, a topic she has explored in her book, "Believing Women" in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur'an . [9]
She rejects the designation of her views and interpretations of Islam as "Islamic feminism," unless that term is defined as "a discourse of gender equality and social justice that derives its understanding and mandate from the Qur'an and seeks the practice of rights and justice for all human beings in the totality of their existence across the public-private continuum." [10]
In her first book, Democracy, Nationalism and Communalism: The Colonial Legacy in South Asia, Barlas explored the relationship of militarism in Pakistani politics to British colonialism.
Feminist theology is a movement found in several religions, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Sikhism, Jainism,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" versus "liberal advocates of Islam". Liberal Islam originally emerged out of the Islamic revivalist movement of the 18th–19th centuries. Liberal and progressive ideas within Islam are considered controversial by some traditional Muslims, who criticize liberal Muslims on the grounds of being too Western and/or rationalistic.
Fazlur Rahman Malik, commonly known as Fazlur Rahman, was a modernist scholar and Islamic philosopher from present-day Pakistan. Recognized as a leading liberal reformer within Islam, he focused on educational reform and promoting independent reasoning (ijtihad). His work has attracted both significant interest and criticism in Muslim-majority countries. His reformist ideas led to protests by over a thousand clerics, faqihs, muftis, and teachers in Pakistan, ultimately resulting in his exile.
Hind bint Abi Umayya, better known as Umm Salamah or Hind al-Makhzūmiyya was the sixth wife of Muhammad.
Amina Wadud is an American Muslim theologian. Wadud serves as visiting professor at 4 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.
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.
Sisters in Islam (SIS) is a Malaysian registered company committed to promoting the rights of women in Malaysia. Its efforts to promote the rights of Muslim women are based on the principles of equality, justice and freedom enjoined by the Quran. SIS work focuses on challenging laws and policies made in the name of Islam that discriminate against women. As such it tackles issues covered under Malaysia's Islamic family and sharia laws, such as polygamy, child marriage, moral policing, Islamic legal theory and jurisprudence, the hijab and modesty, violence against women and hudud. It is noted for its Islamic feminist research and advocacy.
An-Nisa 4:34 is the 34th verse in the fourth chapter of the Quran. This verse adjudges the role of a husband as protector and maintainer of his wife and how he should deal with disloyalty on her part. Scholars vastly differ on the implications of this verse, with many Muslim scholars saying that it serves as a deterrent from anger-based domestic violence. The translation of the verse, which can read 'discipline them gently' is also subject to debate among Muslim scholars. According to a hadith transmitted by Abu Huraira, slapping someone across the face was forbidden.
Traditional Sunni and Shia Islamic marital jurisprudence allows Muslim men to be married to multiple women. Men can have up to four wives at a time according to the islamic jurisprudence.
Qur'anic hermeneutics is the study of theories of the interpretation and understanding of the Qur'an, the central text of Islam. Since the early centuries of Islam, scholars have sought to mine the wealth of its meanings by developing a variety of different methods of hermeneutics. Many of the traditional methods of interpretation are currently being challenged with a more modern or contemporary approach. The three primarily established typologies of tafsir are tradition (Sunni), opinion (Shi'i), and allegory (Sufi). The two main types of verses to be interpreted are Muhkamat and Mutashabihat. The traditional approach to hermeneutics within the Qur'an embodies an awareness of isnad. There are many challenges of addressing modern day human rights, women and minority groups through the traditional hermeneutical model.
Jane Dammen McAuliffe is an American educator, scholar of Islam and the inaugural director of national and international outreach at the Library of Congress.
Riffat Hassan is a Pakistani-American theologian and a leading Islamic feminist scholar of the Qur'an.
Asma Lamrabet is a Moroccan doctor, Islamic feminist, scholar and author.
"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.
Feminism in Pakistan refers to the set of movements which aim to define, establish, and defend the rights of women in Pakistan.This may involve the pursuit of equal political, economic, and social rights, alongside equal opportunity. These movements have historically been shaped in response to national and global reconfiguration of power, including colonialism, nationalism, Islamization, dictatorship, democracy, and the War on Terror. The relationship between the women's movement and the Pakistani state has undergone significant shifts from mutual accommodation to confrontation and conflict.
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.
Islamic feminist views on dress codes include views on issues surrounding women's dress codes in Islam, especially on the hijab and niqāb.
Aysha Hidayatullah is an Associate Professor of Islamic Studies in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of San Francisco. She is most known for her work critiquing feminist interpretations of the Qur'an, Feminist Edges of the Qur'an.
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.
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