Hatoon al-Fassi
Encyclopedia
Dr Hatoon Ajwad al-Fassi is a women's rights
activist and an assistant professor of women's history
at King Saud University
in Saudi Arabia
, where she has been employed since 1989. At the university, al-Fassi carries out historical research. Al-Fassi claims from her research into the pre-Islamic Arabian kingdom of Nabataea
that women in the kingdom had more independence than women in modern Saudi Arabia. Al-Fassi was active in women's right to vote campaigns for the 2005 Saudi Arabian municipal elections and is active in a similar campaign for the 2011 municipal elections
.
, Morocco
that settled in Mecca
in the 19th-century. Through her father Sheikh Ajwad al-Fassi and his father Sheikh Abdullah al-Fassi, she is a great-great-grand-daughter of Qutbul Ujood Hazrat Muhammad al-Fassi (Imam Fassi), the founder and spiritual head of the Fassiyah branch of the Shadhiliyya Sufi order, the twenty-first Khalifa (representative) of Imam Shadhili. She is thus a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad
. Her mother is Sheikha Samira Hamed Dakheel and she has a sister, Hawazan Ajwad al-Fassi, a poet, and a brother, Muhammad Ajwad al-Fassi, a lawyer.
. She obtained undergraduate degrees in history in 1986 and 1992 from King Saud University
(KSU) and a PhD
in ancient women's history
from the University of Manchester
in 2000.
Al-Fassi has been employed at KSU since 1989, with lecturer status as a KSU faculty member since 1992, carrying out historical research into women's history. She has not been allowed to teach at KSU since 2001. Since 2008, she has had the status of an assistant professor of women's history
at KSU.
in Mecca
that had been made without women's participation.
as the book Women in Pre-Islamic Arabia: Nabataea. Some of the evidence she used included coins and inscriptions on tombs and monuments written in ancient Greek and Semitic. She found that women were independent legal persons
able to sign contracts in their own name, in contrast to women in modern Saudi Arabia, who require male guardians to sign contracts. Al-Fassi says that ancient Greek
and Roman law
gave less rights to women than they had in Nabataea, that "an adaptation of Greek and Roman laws was inserted in Islamic law", and that "it's an ancient adaptation, that [Islamic] scholar are not aware of, and they would be really shocked."
Al-Fassi also argues that Nabataea "has weakened the idea that Arabians were merely or essentially nomads, by having an Arabian urbanized state".
. She stated that women's participation in the 2011 election "would show that Saudi Arabia is serious about its claims of reform". She described the authorities' decision not to accept women's participation in the election was "an outrageous mistake that the kingdom is committing".
Al-Fassi stated that women had decided to create their own municipal councils in parallel to the men-only elections and that women creating their own municipal councils or participating in "real elections" were both legal under Saudi law. Electoral commission head al-Dahmash agreed.
In April, al-Fassi said that there was still time before the September election for women to be allowed to take part. She stated, "We are putting all the pressure that is in our power, bearing in mind that it is not that easy in a country such as Saudi Arabia where freedom of assembly is not allowed and civil society is not yet fully-fledged."
Women's rights in Saudi Arabia
Women's rights in Saudi Arabia are defined by Islam and tribal customs. The Arabian peninsula is the ancestral home of patriarchal, nomadic tribes, in which purdah and namus are considered central....
activist and an assistant professor of women's history
Women's history
Women's history is the study of the role that women have played in history, together with the methods needed to study women. It includes the study of the history of the growth of woman's rights throughout recorded history, the examination of individual women of historical significance, and the...
at King Saud University
King Saud University
King Saud University is a public university located in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It was founded in 1957 by King Saud bin Abdul Aziz as Riyadh University, as the first university in the kingdom not dedicated to religious subjects. The university was created to meet the shortage of skilled workers in...
in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
, where she has been employed since 1989. At the university, al-Fassi carries out historical research. Al-Fassi claims from her research into the pre-Islamic Arabian kingdom of Nabataea
Nabataean kingdom
The Nabataean kingdom, also named Nabatea , was a political state of the Nabataeans which existed during Classical antiquity and was annexed by the Roman Empire in AD 106.-Geography:...
that women in the kingdom had more independence than women in modern Saudi Arabia. Al-Fassi was active in women's right to vote campaigns for the 2005 Saudi Arabian municipal elections and is active in a similar campaign for the 2011 municipal elections
Saudi Arabian municipal elections, 2011
Municipal elections in Saudi Arabian towns and cities, initially planned for 31 October 2009, are to be held on 29 September 2011 . Women may not participate in the elections...
.
Family origin
Hatoon al-Fassi is a member of the traditional Sufi Fassi family from FesFes
Fes or Fez is the second largest city of Morocco, after Casablanca, with a population of approximately 1 million . It is the capital of the Fès-Boulemane region....
, Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
that settled in Mecca
Mecca
Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...
in the 19th-century. Through her father Sheikh Ajwad al-Fassi and his father Sheikh Abdullah al-Fassi, she is a great-great-grand-daughter of Qutbul Ujood Hazrat Muhammad al-Fassi (Imam Fassi), the founder and spiritual head of the Fassiyah branch of the Shadhiliyya Sufi order, the twenty-first Khalifa (representative) of Imam Shadhili. She is thus a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
. Her mother is Sheikha Samira Hamed Dakheel and she has a sister, Hawazan Ajwad al-Fassi, a poet, and a brother, Muhammad Ajwad al-Fassi, a lawyer.
Education and academic career
Al-Fassi was raised in a family that encouraged her to think independently of school and media ideas about women's rightsWomen's rights
Women's rights are entitlements and freedoms claimed for women and girls of all ages in many societies.In some places these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behaviour, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed...
. She obtained undergraduate degrees in history in 1986 and 1992 from King Saud University
King Saud University
King Saud University is a public university located in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It was founded in 1957 by King Saud bin Abdul Aziz as Riyadh University, as the first university in the kingdom not dedicated to religious subjects. The university was created to meet the shortage of skilled workers in...
(KSU) and a PhD
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in ancient women's history
Women's history
Women's history is the study of the role that women have played in history, together with the methods needed to study women. It includes the study of the history of the growth of woman's rights throughout recorded history, the examination of individual women of historical significance, and the...
from the University of Manchester
University of Manchester
The University of Manchester is a public research university located in Manchester, United Kingdom. It is a "red brick" university and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities and the N8 Group...
in 2000.
Al-Fassi has been employed at KSU since 1989, with lecturer status as a KSU faculty member since 1992, carrying out historical research into women's history. She has not been allowed to teach at KSU since 2001. Since 2008, she has had the status of an assistant professor of women's history
Women's history
Women's history is the study of the role that women have played in history, together with the methods needed to study women. It includes the study of the history of the growth of woman's rights throughout recorded history, the examination of individual women of historical significance, and the...
at KSU.
2005 municipal elections
Al-Fassi was active in organising would-be women candidates for the 2005 municipal elections. Election organisers did not allow women to participate, citing practical reasons. Al-Fassi felt that authorities giving a practical reason for non-participation of women rather than a religious reason constituted a success for women's campaigning, since arguing against practical objections is easier than arguing against religious objections.Women's rights at mosques
In 2006, Al-Fassi objected to a proposal to change the rules of women's access at the Masjid al-HaramMasjid al-Haram
Al-Masjid al-Ḥarām is the largest mosque in the world. Located in the city of Mecca, it surrounds the Kaaba, the place which Muslims worldwide turn towards while performing daily prayers and is Islam's holiest place...
in Mecca
Mecca
Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...
that had been made without women's participation.
Women in Pre-Islamic Arabia: Nabataea
In 2007, al-Fassi published her research into the status of women in the pre-Islamic Arabian kingdom of NabataeaNabataean kingdom
The Nabataean kingdom, also named Nabatea , was a political state of the Nabataeans which existed during Classical antiquity and was annexed by the Roman Empire in AD 106.-Geography:...
as the book Women in Pre-Islamic Arabia: Nabataea. Some of the evidence she used included coins and inscriptions on tombs and monuments written in ancient Greek and Semitic. She found that women were independent legal persons
Legal personality
Legal personality is the characteristic of a non-human entity regarded by law to have the status of a person....
able to sign contracts in their own name, in contrast to women in modern Saudi Arabia, who require male guardians to sign contracts. Al-Fassi says that ancient Greek
Ancient Greek law
Ancient Greek law is a branch of comparative jurisprudence relating to the laws and legal institutions of Ancient Greece.Greek law has been partially compared with Roman law, and has been incidentally illustrated with the aid of the primitive institutions of the Germanic nations...
and Roman law
Roman law
Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome, and the legal developments which occurred before the 7th century AD — when the Roman–Byzantine state adopted Greek as the language of government. The development of Roman law comprises more than a thousand years of jurisprudence — from the Twelve...
gave less rights to women than they had in Nabataea, that "an adaptation of Greek and Roman laws was inserted in Islamic law", and that "it's an ancient adaptation, that [Islamic] scholar are not aware of, and they would be really shocked."
Al-Fassi also argues that Nabataea "has weakened the idea that Arabians were merely or essentially nomads, by having an Arabian urbanized state".
2011 municipal election
Since early 2011, al-Fassi has participated in the "Baladi" women's rights campaign, which is calling for women to be allowed to participate in the September 2011 municipal electionsSaudi Arabian municipal elections, 2011
Municipal elections in Saudi Arabian towns and cities, initially planned for 31 October 2009, are to be held on 29 September 2011 . Women may not participate in the elections...
. She stated that women's participation in the 2011 election "would show that Saudi Arabia is serious about its claims of reform". She described the authorities' decision not to accept women's participation in the election was "an outrageous mistake that the kingdom is committing".
Al-Fassi stated that women had decided to create their own municipal councils in parallel to the men-only elections and that women creating their own municipal councils or participating in "real elections" were both legal under Saudi law. Electoral commission head al-Dahmash agreed.
In April, al-Fassi said that there was still time before the September election for women to be allowed to take part. She stated, "We are putting all the pressure that is in our power, bearing in mind that it is not that easy in a country such as Saudi Arabia where freedom of assembly is not allowed and civil society is not yet fully-fledged."