Syllabus, Islamic Feminism (grad seminar)

Islamic Feminism – Fall 2016 Graduate Seminar: MES 386, R S 390T, WGS 393 Prof. Hina Azam Day/Time: W 12:00 – 3:00 Location: GAR 2.124 Office: CAL 506 Off Hrs: T/Th 3:30-4:30 or by appt Description Islam and feminism are often considered to be contradictory in their essences and objectives. Nevertheless, we now find more than a century of writing by Muslim women who draw their inspiration from their religion, and who seek to reconcile Islam’s scriptures and traditions with modern ideals of gender equality and justice. This course explores the idea of Islamic feminism, and surveys its history and key writings. Students will be introduced to some of the practices, doctrines, and texts of Islam that have been considered most problematic from a women/gender perspective, and will read and discuss the writings of several critical figures from the 20th and 21st centuries. Throughout the course, students will be encouraged to reflect on the idea of, and varying definitions of, “Islamic feminism,” as well as to develop their own definitions of the term. Required readings will be in English. Course Requirements/Grading Class Attendance and Participation 5 Reflections – 15% each 25% 75% Class Participation Students are expected to attend class every day and to arrive on time. I will take attendance at the start of each class. However, do not miss class just because you are running late. It is better to be tardy than absent. If you arrive late/miss a portion of class, it is your responsibility to make sure I have marked you down correctly, and to see what you might have missed. Students should be prepared to address all assigned readings in class, to respond to questions, and to contribute actively to discussion. Students should prepare the following common questions for all readings, to get a handle on the text and develop a systematic method of reading: 1) Description: What is the text about? What do we know about the author and the socio-historical context in which the text was written? Who is the audience? 2) Argument: What claims/arguments, explicit or implicit, is the author making, about both religion/Islam and women/gender? 3) Strategy: How are these arguments made? What sorts of support are used/presented? What is the positionality of the author and how does she or he utilize that? 4) Critique/Evaluation: How persuasive are the author’s claims/arguments, particularly those relevant to questions of Islam and women/gender? 5) Encounter/Discovery: What in this reading is new, provocative, exciting, or disturbing to you? What is your personal takeaway? Reflections During the semester, you will write 5 reflection essays, which are meant to address each unit’s readings collectively. Your reflections should be well-composed and professionally written, with clear organization, thesis points, and references to the unit readings. Essays should be submitted electronically, as Word documents, by 11:59 pm on the due date. Essays should be 1600-2000 words, not including footnotes. Parenthetical citations should be used, providing author and page number, and abbreviated title if we read multiple articles by the same author. For example: (Stowasser, 35) but (cooke, “Multiple Critique,” 76). Course Readings (all required) Textbooks to purchase • Margot Badran. Feminism in Islam: Secular and Religious Convergences. 2009. • Barbara Stowasser. Women in the Qur’an, Traditions, and Interpretation. 1994. • Lamia Shehadeh, The Idea of Women Under Fundamentalist Islam. 2007. • Qasim Amin. The Liberation of Woman, and The New Woman. 1900. • Fatima Mernissi. The Veil and the Male Elite (Le harem politique – Le Prophète et les femmes). Tr. Mary Jo Lakeland. 1987. • Amina Wadud. Qur’an and Woman. 1992. • Gisela Webb, ed. Windows of Faith. 2000. • Aysha Hidayatullah. Feminist Edges of the Qur’an. 2014. • Kecia Ali. Sexual Ethics and Islam. 2006. Textbooks available as pdfs • Zaynab Ghazali, Days from my life (Ayyām min ḥayātī). Tr. A. R. Kidwai. 1978. • Bint al-Shāṭi’ (‘A’isha bt. ‘Abd al-Raḥmān), Wives of the Prophet (Nisā’ al-Nabī). Tr. Matti Moosa. 1973. Additional readings (articles, essays, and book chapters), in addtion to Ghazali and Bint al-Shāṭi’, will be available in PDF format on Canvas. Canvas readings will be noted in blue font, below. Class Schedule Unit I: The Idea of Islamic Feminism 8/24 Class #1) Course Introduction; Begin Unit I Part A) Course introduction Part B) Anwar, Bahlul, cooke, and Seedat • Ghazala Anwar, “Muslim feminist discourses.” (1996) • Raja Bahlul, “On the idea of Islamic feminism.” (2000) • miriam cooke. “Multiple critique: Islamic feminist rhetorical strategies.” (2000) • Fatima Seedat, “Islam, feminism, and Islamic feminism: between inadequacy and inevitability (2013) 8/31 Class #2) Continue Unit I Part A) Margot Badran • From Margot Badran textbook, Feminism in Islam: - Ch.9 “Towards Islamic feminism: A look at the Middle East.” 215-241 - Ch.10 “Islamic feminism: What’s in a name?” 242-252 - Ch.13 “Between secular and Islamic feminism(s): reflections on the Middle East and beyond.” 300-322 - Ch.14 “Islamic feminism on the move.” (323-338) Part B) Lila Abū-Lughod • From Lila Abu-Lughod, Do Muslim women need saving?: - Ch.6 “An anthropologist in the territory of rights.” 173-200 - Conclusion: “Registers of Humanity.” 201-227 Unit 1 Reflection due on on the night of Wed 9/7. Unit II: The Backdrop to Islamic Feminism 9/7 Class #3) Complete Unit I; Begin Unit II Part A) Ziba Mir-Hosseini and Sa’diyyah Shaikh • Ziba Mir-Hosseini, “Beyond ‘Islam’ vs. ‘Feminism.’” (2011) • Sa’diyyah Shaikh, “Feminism, epistemology and experience.” (2013) Part B) Women in Classical Islamic Law • Kecia Ali, “Marriage in classical Islamic jurisprudence.” (2008) • Christopher Melchert, “Whether to keep women out of the mosque.” (2006) • Hina Azam, “Competing Approaches to Rape in Islamic Law.” (2013) 9/14 Class #4) Continue Unit II Parts A & B) Women in Scripture and Classical Interpretations • From Barbara Stowasser textbook, Women in the Qur’an, Traditions, and Interpretation: - Introduction - Ch.1 “The Qur’an” - Ch.2 “The Chapter of Eve” - Ch.4 “The Chapter of Zulaykha” - Ch.7 “The Chapter of Mary” - Ch.8 “The Mothers of the Believers in the Qur’an” 9/21 Class #5) Complete Unit II Part A) Modern salafi thinkers on women and gender • From Lamia Shehadeh textbook, The Idea of Women Under Fundamentalist Islam: select chapters Part B) Jamaat-e-Islami and others on women and Islamic feminism • Irfan Ahmad, “Cracks in the mightiest fortress: Jamaat-e-Islami’s changing discourse on women.” (2008) • Ḥasan al-Shāfi‘ī, “The movement for feminist interpretation of the Qur’an and religion and its threat to the Arabic language and tradition.” Unit 2 Reflection due on on the night of Wed 9/28. Unit III: “First Wave” of Islamic Feminism (late 19th to mid-20th c) 9/28 Class #6) Begin Unit III Parts A & B) The History of Feminism in the Middle East • From Margot Badran textbook, Feminism in Islam: - Ch.1 “Competing agenda: feminists, Islam, and the state in 19th and 20th century Egypt.” - Ch.3 “From consciousness to activism: feminist politics in early 20th-century Egypt.” - Ch.5 “Independent women: more than a century of feminism in Egypt.” 10/5 Class #7) Continue Unit III Part A) Qāsim Amin • Qāsim Amin textbook, The Liberation of Woman, and The New Woman (all) • From Margot Badran textbook, Feminism in Islam: - Ch.2 “Women, Qāsim Amin, and the rise of feminist discourse.” • From Barbara Stowasser textbook, Women in the Qur’an, Traditions, and Interpretation: - Ch.10 “Modern Muslim Interpretations” Part B) Ṭāhir Ḥaddād • Tahir Haddad chapters 10/12 Class #8) Complete Unit III Part A) Zaynab al-Ghazali • miriam cooke, “Ayyam min hayati: the prison memoirs of a Muslim sister.” • PDF textbook: Zaynab Ghazali, Days from My Life (all). Part B) Bint al-Shati (A‘isha ‘Abd al-Rahman) • PDF textbook: Bint al-Shati, Wives of the Prophet (all). Unit 3 Reflection due on on the night of Wed 10/19. Unit IV: “Second Wave” of Islamic Feminism (mid- to late 20th c) 10/19 Class #9) Begin Unit IV Part A) Riffat Hassan - “Feminist theology: the challenges for Muslim women” - “Feminism in Islam” - “Are men and women equal before Allah?” - “The issue of woman-man equality in the Islamic tradition” - “The issue of gender equality in the context of creation in Islam” - “Women in Muslim culture” - “Challenging the stereotypes of fundamentalism” Part B) Fatima Mernissi • Fatima Mernissi texbook, The Veil and the Male Elite. (all) 10/26 Class #10) Continue Unit IV Part A) Amina Wadud • Amina Wadud, Qur’an and Woman. (all) Part B) Azizah al-Hibri - “Deconstructing patriarchal jurisprudence in Islamic law” - “Hagar on my mind” - “The nature of Islamic marriage” - “An Islamic perspective on domestic violence” And from textbook, Windows of Faith: - Ch.3 “An Introduction to Muslim women’s rights” 11/2 Class #11) Complete Unit IV Part A) Women activist-scholars • From Windows of Faith textbook: - Introduction - Ch.2 Nimat Barazangi, “Muslim women’s Islamic higher learning as a human right” - Ch.4 Maysam al-Faruqi “Women’s self-identity in the Qur’an and Islamic law” - Ch.5 Asifa Quraishi, “Her Honor: An Islamic critique of the rape law of Pakistan from a woman-sensitive perspective” - Ch.9 Gwendolyn Simmons “Striving for Muslim women’s human rights – before and beyond Beijing” Part B) Islamic feminist exegesis • From Aysha Hidayatullah textbook, Feminist Edges of the Qur’an chapters: - Introduction - Ch.1 “History of tafsīr” - Ch.2 “The frames of feminism” - Ch.4 “Historical contextualization method” - Ch.5 “Intratextual method” - Ch.6 “The tawhidic paradigm” Unit 4 Reflection due on on the night of Wed 11/9. Unit V: “Third Wave” of Islamic Feminism (21st c) 11/9 Class #12) Begin Unit V Parts A & B) Niaz Shah, Sa’diyyah Shaikh, and Asifa Quraishi • Niaz Shah, “Women’s human rights in the Koran.” • Asifa Quraishi readings: - “A meditation on mahr, modernity, and Muslim marriage contract law.” - “What if shariah weren’t the enemy?” • Sa’diyyah Shaikh readings: - “Sexing Islamic theology.” - “Exegetical violence.” - “Knowledge, women, and gender in the hadith.” 11/16 Class #13) Continue Unit V Parts A & B) Kecia Ali • Kecia Ali, “The necessity for critical engagement with marriage and divorce law.” • Kecia Ali textbook, Sexual Ethics and Islam. (all) Wed 11/23 – Sun 11/27 – Thanksgiving Holiday 11/30 Class #14) Complete Unit IV; Course Wrap-up Parts A & B) Aysha Hidayatullah • From Aysha Hidayatullah textbook, Feminist Edges of the Qur’an: - Preface - Ch.7 “Initial conclusions” - Ch.8 “A critical reassessment” - Ch.9 “Confronting feminist edges” Unit 5 Reflection due on on the night of Wed 12/7. Reflection Essay Prompts Unit 1 Reflection due on on the night of Wed 9/7: How would you define “Islamic feminism”? What makes it Islamic, and what makes it feminist? Is it beneficial to think of the term in the plural, i.e. “Islamic feminisms,” and if so, then how? Where do you see convergences among these authors, and where are the faultlines? How do(es) Islamic feminism(s) align with other religious trends, such as traditinalism, modernism, salafism, secularism, or postmodernism? Please make sure to craft your reflection professionally, draw on the unit readings, and cite the texts as appropriate. Unit 2 Reflection due on on the night of Wed 9/28: What are the key religious and cultural ideas to which Muslims feminists might be responding, or which they might find problematic from a gender perspective? How would you compare premodern and modern religio-cultural notions of womanhood and gender, in terms of positions, motivations, and logics? How might one develop a feminist interpretation of certain religious doctrines and texts that might, at first glance, appear patriarchal or misogynistic? Please make sure to craft your reflection professionally, draw on the unit readings, and cite the texts as appropriate. Unit 3 Reflection due on on the night of Wed 10/19: What were the central objectives and strategies of “first wave” feminists? How might these objectives and strategies have been in response to or impacted by the specific social, political, and economic contexts in which they were writing? In which venues and from which (social, political, economic, and religious) positions did these thinkers express their ideas? Please make sure to craft your reflection professionally, draw on the unit readings, and cite the texts as appropriate. Unit 4 Reflection due on on the night of Wed 11/9: What are some of the main approaches of “second wave” Islamic feminism(s) toward Islamic scripture, theology, and law? What are these thinkers’ key objectives and methods in each of these areas? From which positions and in which venues are these feminists expressing their ideas? Do you think that theoretical versus activist concerns and strategies are significantly different, and if so, how? Please make sure to craft your reflection professionally, draw on the unit readings, and cite the texts as appropriate. Unit 5 Reflection due on on the night of Wed 12/7: How might you identify the differences and similarities between “third wave” and “second wave” Islamic feminism(s)? How do “third wave” thinkers and writings build on and develop that which preceded them, and how do they critique or even detract from that which preceded them? What do these differences in objectives and strategies over time and place mean for the definition of “Islamic feminism”? How would you define “Islamic feminism” now, after having gone through the course? Please make sure to craft your reflection professionally, draw on the unit readings, and cite the texts as appropriate.