Feminism and Islam in North Africa

Catalog description

This course is a survey of feminist thinkers from North Africa and its diaspora, featuring both French and Arabic texts in English translation. The purpose of the course is to critically explore the competing treatment of major gendered tropes in a Muslim context (the veil, the harem, polygamy, etc.) by North African thinkers, through their examination of qur’anic surats / hadiths, the evolution of tafsirs (tradition of qur’anic exegesis) as well as their conflicting approaches to secular western feminism. Authors include: Fatima Mernissi, Assia Djebar, Qasim Amin, Asmaa Lamrabet, etc.