Leila Ahmed
Encyclopedia
Leila Ahmed is an Egyptian American
writer on Islam
and Islamic feminism as well as being the first women's studies professor at Harvard Divinity School
.
district of Cairo
to a middle-class Egyptian father and an upper class Turkish
mother in 1940, Ahmed's childhood was shaped both by Muslim Egyptian values and the liberal orientation of Egypt's aristocracy under the ancient régime. After Egypt's last ruling monarch
was overthrown by the Free Officers Movement
in 1952, life for Ahmed's family along with others in her milieu was irrevocably changed. Her father, a civil engineer, was a strong opponent of Gamal Abdel Nasser
's construction of the Aswan High Dam
on ecological principles. This earned him the wrath of the ruling regime for years to follow and had detrimental effects on the family.
She earned her doctorate degree from University of Cambridge
during the 1960s before moving to the United States
to teach and write, where she was appointed to professorship in Women’s Studies and Near Eastern studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst
in 1981 followed by a professorship in Women's Studies
and Religion
at the Harvard Divinity School
in 1999, where she currently teaches.
through her grandmother during her childhood, and she came to distinguish it from "official Islam" as practiced and preached by a largely male religious elite. This realization would later form the basis of her first acclaimed book, Women and Gender in Islam (1993), a seminal work on Islamic history, Muslim feminism
, and the historical role of women in Islam.
Ahmed speaks of her experience in Europe
and the United States as one that was often fraught with tension and confusion as she attempted to reconcile her Muslim Egyptian identity with Western values. Faced with racism
and anti-Muslim prejudice, and after deconstructing traditionalist male-centered beliefs in her own culture, she set out to dispel equally damaging myths and misconceptions held by the West about Islam and Muslim women. Today, Ahmed is perhaps known most widely for her groundbreaking work on the Islamic view of women and their historical and social status in the Muslim world
.
Ahmed has been a strong critic of Arab nationalism in Egypt and the Middle East
. She devotes an entire chapter in her autobiography on the question of Arab nationalism
, and the political factors and efforts which went into constructing an Arab identity for Egypt after the army's coup d'état
. According to Ahmed's research, the idea that Egyptians
were "Arab" was virtually unheard of well into the 20th century. She describes Arab nationalism
, like many other forms of pan-nationalism
, as a type of cultural imperialism
eating away at the diversity and cultural creativity of both the Arabic
-speaking national majorities (who often speak widely divergent vernacular
s) and the non-Arabic speaking minorities throughout the Middle East and North Africa
.
are subjected are due to the prevalence of patriarchal interpretations of Islam rather than Islam itself. She maintains that at its inception, Muhammad
gave Islam two divergent voices:
Islamic doctrine developed within an androcentric
, misogynist
society, that of Abbasid
Iraq
(750-1258). This society emphasised and institutionalised the gendered hierarchical voice and silenced the voice of equity and justice. Islam as a religion therefore became a discourse of the politically dominant elite, i.e.; male society. There were early signs of resistance to establishment Islam. For example, the thoughts of Sufi and Qarmatians
groups, philosophers such as Ibn al-Arabi and the liberal stance of powerful families and individuals towards their daughters in respect of marriage and education (e.g.; imposing a monogamy clause in marriage contracts or one for providing private education).
Despite such resistance, establishment Islam experienced little serious challenge until early 19th-century colonial encroachment. European colonialisms’ remit was essentially economic; however, female emancipation was used as an argument to legitimate geopolitical incursion. Colonial feminism was a Western discourse of dominance which, "introduced the notion that an intrinsic connection existed between the issue of culture and the status of women, and … that progress for women could be achieved only through abandoning the native culture."
Inevitably, the initial reaction to this was a rejection of western values by political Islamists
. This rejection saw the conflation of Islam and culture where Islamic authenticity became defined in terms of cultural authenticity and, specifically, the role of women within Islam. This led to a reaffirmation of indigenous customs relating to women and restoration of the customs and laws of past Islamic societies. The underlying assumption was that there is an authentic interpretation of Islam that is based on the texts and institutions developed in Abbasid Iraq. The meaning of gender and the position of women within Islam is, therefore, "unambiguous and ascertainable in some precise and absolute sense."
Since this initial reaction, Muslim women scholars have argued that the values of the Abbasid era in Iraq are not universal to Islam — rather they were specific to a particular time, culture and people. Islamic texts and institutions need to be separated from patriarchal culture and reappraised in terms of merit, and listening to the voice of equality and justice. Ahmed concludes by exhorting feminists, both Muslim and Western, to undertake this task by critically engaging with, challenging and redefining the Middle East regions' diverse religious and cultural heritage.
Nineteenth century". London: Longman. (1978)
“A Traditional Ceremony in an Islamic Milieu in Malaysia” Muslim Women (1984)
“Between Two Worlds: The Formation of a Turn-of-the-Century Egyptian Feminist,” in Life Lines: Theorizing Women’s Autobiography (1988)
“Arab Women: 1995, ” The Next Arab Decade: Alternative Futures (1988)
“Feminism and Cross-Cultural Inquiry: The terms of discourse in Islam" In coming to terms: Feminism, Theory and Politics. Ed. Elizabeth Weed. New York, Routhledge (1989)
“Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate” New Haven: Yale University Press, (1992)
"A Border Passage: From Cairo to America—A Woman's Journey". New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux, (1999)
"A Quiet Revolution: The Veil's Resurgence, from the Middle East to America". New Haven. Yale University Press (2011)
“The Discourse of the Veil.” Post Colonialisms: an Anthology of Cultural Theory and Criticism.
Ed. Gaurav Desai and Supriya Nair. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2005. 315-338.
“The Veil Debate Again: a View from America in the Early Twenty-first Century”. On Shifting
Ground: Muslim Women in the Global Era. Ed. Fereshteh Nourale-Simone. New York: Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2005.
“Gender and literacy in Islam.” Nothing Sacred: Women Respond to Religious Fundamentalism
and Terror. Ed. Betsy Reed. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press/Nation Books, 2002.
“The Women of Islam”. Transition 83 (2000): 78-97.
“Early Islam and the position of Women: the problem of interpretation.” Women in Middle
Eastern History: Shifting Boundaries in Sex and Gender. Ed. Nikki R. Keddie, Beth Baron. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993.
“Arab Culture and Writing Woman’s Bodies.” Gender Issues 9.1 (March 1, 1989): 41-55.
“Women and the Advent of Islam.” Signs 11.4 (Summer, 1986): 665-691.
“Feminism and Feminist Movements in the Middle East, a Preliminary Exploration: Turkey, Egypt, Algeria, People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen.” Women and Islam. Ed. Ellen Skinner. Virginia: Pergamon Press: 1982. 153.
“Western Ethnocentrism and Perceptions of the Harem.” Feminist Studies 8.3 (Autumn, 1982):
521-534.
Ahmed, Leila, Krishna Ahooja-Patel, Charlotte Bunch, Nilufer Cagatay, Ursula Funk, Dafna N.
Izraeli, Margaret McIntosh, Helen I. Safa, and Aline K. Wong. “Comments on Tinker’s ‘A
Feminist view of Copenhagen”. Signs 6.4 (Summer, 1981): 771-790.
“Encounter with American Feminism: A Muslim Woman’s View of Two Conferences”.
Women’s Studies Newsletter 8.3 (Summer, 1980): 7-9.
(2002), produced by Unity Productions Foundation.
Egyptian American
Egyptian Americans are Americans of Egyptian ancestry, first-generation Egyptian immigrants, or descendants of Egyptians who immigrated to the United States. In the 2007 U.S. census, the number of people with Egyptian ancestry was estimated at 195,000, although some estimates range from several...
writer on Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
and Islamic feminism as well as being the first women's studies professor at Harvard Divinity School
Harvard Divinity School
Harvard Divinity School is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the United States. The School's mission is to train and educate its students either in the academic study of religion, or for the practice of a religious ministry or other public...
.
Background
Born in the HeliopolisHeliopolis (Cairo Suburb)
Modern Heliopolis is a district in Cairo, Egypt. The city was established in 1905 by the Heliopolis Oasis Company, headed by the Belgian industrialist Édouard Louis Joseph, Baron Empain, as well as Boghos Nubar, son of the Egyptian Prime Minister Nubar Pasha.-History:The Baron Empain, a well known...
district of Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
to a middle-class Egyptian father and an upper class Turkish
Turkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
mother in 1940, Ahmed's childhood was shaped both by Muslim Egyptian values and the liberal orientation of Egypt's aristocracy under the ancient régime. After Egypt's last ruling monarch
Farouk of Egypt
Farouk I of Egypt , was the tenth ruler from the Muhammad Ali Dynasty and the penultimate King of Egypt and Sudan, succeeding his father, Fuad I, in 1936....
was overthrown by the Free Officers Movement
Free Officers Movement
In Egypt, the clandestine revolutionary Free Officers Movement was composed of young junior army officers committed to unseating the Egyptian monarchy and its British advisors...
in 1952, life for Ahmed's family along with others in her milieu was irrevocably changed. Her father, a civil engineer, was a strong opponent of Gamal Abdel Nasser
Gamal Abdel Nasser
Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein was the second President of Egypt from 1956 until his death. A colonel in the Egyptian army, Nasser led the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 along with Muhammad Naguib, the first president, which overthrew the monarchy of Egypt and Sudan, and heralded a new period of...
's construction of the Aswan High Dam
Aswan Dam
The Aswan Dam is an embankment dam situated across the Nile River in Aswan, Egypt. Since the 1950s, the name commonly refers to the High Dam, which is larger and newer than the Aswan Low Dam, which was first completed in 1902...
on ecological principles. This earned him the wrath of the ruling regime for years to follow and had detrimental effects on the family.
She earned her doctorate degree from University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
during the 1960s before moving to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to teach and write, where she was appointed to professorship in Women’s Studies and Near Eastern studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst
University of Massachusetts Amherst
The University of Massachusetts Amherst is a public research and land-grant university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States and the flagship of the University of Massachusetts system...
in 1981 followed by a professorship in Women's Studies
Women's studies
Women's studies, also known as feminist studies, is an interdisciplinary academic field which explores politics, society and history from an intersectional, multicultural women's perspective...
and Religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
at the Harvard Divinity School
Harvard Divinity School
Harvard Divinity School is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the United States. The School's mission is to train and educate its students either in the academic study of religion, or for the practice of a religious ministry or other public...
in 1999, where she currently teaches.
Autobiography
In her 1999 memoir A Border Passage, Ahmed describes her multicultural Cairene upbringing and her adult life as an expatriate and an immigrant in the West. She tells of how she was introduced to IslamIslam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
through her grandmother during her childhood, and she came to distinguish it from "official Islam" as practiced and preached by a largely male religious elite. This realization would later form the basis of her first acclaimed book, Women and Gender in Islam (1993), a seminal work on Islamic history, Muslim feminism
Islamic feminism
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 women's rights, gender equality, and social justice grounded in an Islamic framework...
, and the historical role of women in Islam.
Ahmed speaks of her experience in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and the United States as one that was often fraught with tension and confusion as she attempted to reconcile her Muslim Egyptian identity with Western values. Faced with racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
and anti-Muslim prejudice, and after deconstructing traditionalist male-centered beliefs in her own culture, she set out to dispel equally damaging myths and misconceptions held by the West about Islam and Muslim women. Today, Ahmed is perhaps known most widely for her groundbreaking work on the Islamic view of women and their historical and social status in the Muslim world
Muslim world
The term Muslim world has several meanings. In a religious sense, it refers to those who adhere to the teachings of Islam, referred to as Muslims. In a cultural sense, it refers to Islamic civilization, inclusive of non-Muslims living in that civilization...
.
Ahmed has been a strong critic of Arab nationalism in Egypt and the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
. She devotes an entire chapter in her autobiography on the question of Arab nationalism
Arab nationalism
Arab nationalism is a nationalist ideology celebrating the glories of Arab civilization, the language and literature of the Arabs, calling for rejuvenation and political union in the Arab world...
, and the political factors and efforts which went into constructing an Arab identity for Egypt after the army's coup d'état
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
. According to Ahmed's research, the idea that Egyptians
Egyptians
Egyptians are nation an ethnic group made up of Mediterranean North Africans, the indigenous people of Egypt.Egyptian identity is closely tied to geography. The population of Egypt is concentrated in the lower Nile Valley, the small strip of cultivable land stretching from the First Cataract to...
were "Arab" was virtually unheard of well into the 20th century. She describes Arab nationalism
Arab nationalism
Arab nationalism is a nationalist ideology celebrating the glories of Arab civilization, the language and literature of the Arabs, calling for rejuvenation and political union in the Arab world...
, like many other forms of pan-nationalism
Pan-nationalism
Pan-nationalism is a form of nationalism distinguished by the large-scale of the claimed national territory, and because it often defines the nation on the basis of a ‘’cluster’’ of cultures and ethnic groups. It shares the general nationalist ideology, that the nation is a fundamental unit of...
, as a type of cultural imperialism
Cultural imperialism
Cultural imperialism is the domination of one culture over another. Cultural imperialism can take the form of a general attitude or an active, formal and deliberate policy, including military action. Economic or technological factors may also play a role...
eating away at the diversity and cultural creativity of both the Arabic
Varieties of Arabic
The Arabic language is a Semitic language characterized by a wide number of linguistic varieties within its five regional forms. The largest divisions occur between the spoken languages of different regions. The Arabic of North Africa, for example, is often incomprehensible to an Arabic speaker...
-speaking national majorities (who often speak widely divergent vernacular
Vernacular
A vernacular is the native language or native dialect of a specific population, as opposed to a language of wider communication that is not native to the population, such as a national language or lingua franca.- Etymology :The term is not a recent one...
s) and the non-Arabic speaking minorities throughout the Middle East and North Africa
North Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
.
Women and Gender in Islam
In her seminal work, Women and Gender in Islam (1992), Ahmed argues that the oppressive practices to which women in the Middle EastMiddle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
are subjected are due to the prevalence of patriarchal interpretations of Islam rather than Islam itself. She maintains that at its inception, 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...
gave Islam two divergent voices:
- an ethical structure that advocates the moral and spiritual equality of all human beings;
- A hierarchical structure as the basis of male/female relations; a gender-based/sexual hierarchy.
Islamic doctrine developed within an androcentric
Androcentrism
Androcentrism is the practice, conscious or otherwise, of placing male human beings or the masculine point of view at the center of one's view of the world and its culture and history...
, misogynist
Misogyny
Misogyny is the hatred or dislike of women or girls. Philogyny, meaning fondness, love or admiration towards women, is the antonym of misogyny. The term misandry is the term for men that is parallel to misogyny...
society, that of Abbasid
Abbasid
The Abbasid Caliphate or, more simply, the Abbasids , was the third of the Islamic caliphates. It was ruled by the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, who built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphate from all but the al-Andalus region....
Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
(750-1258). This society emphasised and institutionalised the gendered hierarchical voice and silenced the voice of equity and justice. Islam as a religion therefore became a discourse of the politically dominant elite, i.e.; male society. There were early signs of resistance to establishment Islam. For example, the thoughts of Sufi and Qarmatians
Qarmatians
The Qarmatians were a Shi'a Ismaili group centered in eastern Arabia, where they attempted to established a utopian republic in 899 CE. They are most famed for their revolt against the Abbasid Caliphate...
groups, philosophers such as Ibn al-Arabi and the liberal stance of powerful families and individuals towards their daughters in respect of marriage and education (e.g.; imposing a monogamy clause in marriage contracts or one for providing private education).
Despite such resistance, establishment Islam experienced little serious challenge until early 19th-century colonial encroachment. European colonialisms’ remit was essentially economic; however, female emancipation was used as an argument to legitimate geopolitical incursion. Colonial feminism was a Western discourse of dominance which, "introduced the notion that an intrinsic connection existed between the issue of culture and the status of women, and … that progress for women could be achieved only through abandoning the native culture."
Inevitably, the initial reaction to this was a rejection of western values by political Islamists
Islamism
Islamism also , lit., "Political Islam" is set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system. Islamism is a controversial term, and definitions of it sometimes vary...
. This rejection saw the conflation of Islam and culture where Islamic authenticity became defined in terms of cultural authenticity and, specifically, the role of women within Islam. This led to a reaffirmation of indigenous customs relating to women and restoration of the customs and laws of past Islamic societies. The underlying assumption was that there is an authentic interpretation of Islam that is based on the texts and institutions developed in Abbasid Iraq. The meaning of gender and the position of women within Islam is, therefore, "unambiguous and ascertainable in some precise and absolute sense."
Since this initial reaction, Muslim women scholars have argued that the values of the Abbasid era in Iraq are not universal to Islam — rather they were specific to a particular time, culture and people. Islamic texts and institutions need to be separated from patriarchal culture and reappraised in terms of merit, and listening to the voice of equality and justice. Ahmed concludes by exhorting feminists, both Muslim and Western, to undertake this task by critically engaging with, challenging and redefining the Middle East regions' diverse religious and cultural heritage.
Books
"Edward W. Lane: A study of his life and works and of British ideas of the Middle East in theNineteenth century". London: Longman. (1978)
“A Traditional Ceremony in an Islamic Milieu in Malaysia” Muslim Women (1984)
“Between Two Worlds: The Formation of a Turn-of-the-Century Egyptian Feminist,” in Life Lines: Theorizing Women’s Autobiography (1988)
“Arab Women: 1995, ” The Next Arab Decade: Alternative Futures (1988)
“Feminism and Cross-Cultural Inquiry: The terms of discourse in Islam" In coming to terms: Feminism, Theory and Politics. Ed. Elizabeth Weed. New York, Routhledge (1989)
“Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate” New Haven: Yale University Press, (1992)
"A Border Passage: From Cairo to America—A Woman's Journey". New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux, (1999)
"A Quiet Revolution: The Veil's Resurgence, from the Middle East to America". New Haven. Yale University Press (2011)
Articles
“Women in the rise of Islam.” The new Voices of Islam : Rethinking Politics and Modernity : a Reader. Ed. Mehran Kamrava. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2006. 177-200.“The Discourse of the Veil.” Post Colonialisms: an Anthology of Cultural Theory and Criticism.
Ed. Gaurav Desai and Supriya Nair. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2005. 315-338.
“The Veil Debate Again: a View from America in the Early Twenty-first Century”. On Shifting
Ground: Muslim Women in the Global Era. Ed. Fereshteh Nourale-Simone. New York: Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2005.
“Gender and literacy in Islam.” Nothing Sacred: Women Respond to Religious Fundamentalism
and Terror. Ed. Betsy Reed. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press/Nation Books, 2002.
“The Women of Islam”. Transition 83 (2000): 78-97.
“Early Islam and the position of Women: the problem of interpretation.” Women in Middle
Eastern History: Shifting Boundaries in Sex and Gender. Ed. Nikki R. Keddie, Beth Baron. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993.
“Arab Culture and Writing Woman’s Bodies.” Gender Issues 9.1 (March 1, 1989): 41-55.
“Women and the Advent of Islam.” Signs 11.4 (Summer, 1986): 665-691.
“Feminism and Feminist Movements in the Middle East, a Preliminary Exploration: Turkey, Egypt, Algeria, People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen.” Women and Islam. Ed. Ellen Skinner. Virginia: Pergamon Press: 1982. 153.
“Western Ethnocentrism and Perceptions of the Harem.” Feminist Studies 8.3 (Autumn, 1982):
521-534.
Ahmed, Leila, Krishna Ahooja-Patel, Charlotte Bunch, Nilufer Cagatay, Ursula Funk, Dafna N.
Izraeli, Margaret McIntosh, Helen I. Safa, and Aline K. Wong. “Comments on Tinker’s ‘A
Feminist view of Copenhagen”. Signs 6.4 (Summer, 1981): 771-790.
“Encounter with American Feminism: A Muslim Woman’s View of Two Conferences”.
Women’s Studies Newsletter 8.3 (Summer, 1980): 7-9.
Films
Ahmed was an advisor to the award-winning, PBS-broadcast documentary Muhammad: Legacy of a ProphetMuhammad: Legacy of a Prophet
Muhammad: Legacy of the Prophet is a PBS documentary film about the life of Islamic prophet Muhammad based on historical records and on the stories of living American Muslims who call Muhammad the Messenger of God...
(2002), produced by Unity Productions Foundation.
External links
- Interview with Leila Ahmed
- Interview: Muslim Women and Other Misunderstandings December 7, 2006
- Professor Leila Ahmed, Ph.D., speaks in the Distinguished Lecture Series March 22, 2010
- A Border Passage: From Cairo to America -- A Woman's Journey, Leila Ahmed, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999.
- Profile of Leila Ahmed By Julia Lieblich, The Associated Press, August 12, 1999
- Profile