Indian Ocean & South Asia Research Network

Islam and Gender Reform

Wednesday, 24 February
6 for 6.30 PM
Room 4.11, UTS Building 2, Level 4 (enter via main tower entrance)

Abstract:
By the beginning of the 21st century Muslim women reached a critical mass, participating in all levels of social political activity and speaking for themselves in a wide range of matters, religious, spiritual, and intellectual.  There are distinctive voices amongst these speakers but all with the single mandate, to participate fully in what it means to be Muslim, what it means to be a servant of Allah and especially in self definining their own identity. This self recognized identity takes many forms in context as diverse as European Muslim minorities and established Muslim majority nation-states.  This lecture will provide some of the background to these developments, and compare the perspectives of the various players, from Muslim secularists, Islamists, Muslim feminists and Islamic feminists.  It will present some of the competing arguments to consider their relationship to each other and how they build upon Islam itself as the means for Muslim women’s liberation and equality.

About Amina Wadud:
Professor Amina Wadud is a visiting scholar at University of Melbourne teaching and intensive course on Islam, Gender and Reform.  She has been one of the lead intellectuals in Islamic gender reform on the basis of her gender inclusive analysis of the sacred text and her combining scholarship and activism.  She has traveled to more than 40 countries with her scholarly works translated into at least 10 languages.  She has retired from full time academics in order to travel more and to devote more time to consultation on gender issues in Islam and human rights.