Thursday, October 25, 2 pm
PUBLIC LECTURE
Üsküdar University Nermin Tarhan Hall
Prof. miriam cooke
Nazira Zeineddine: Pioneering Women’s Rights in Islam
Although the Islamic feminist movement did not take off until the 1990s, it was pioneered in 1928. Lebanese Nazira Zeineddine was the first woman to publish a full-length book on Muslim women’s rights. Al-sufur wa al-hijab (1928) deconstructed patriarchal interpretations of Qur’an and Sunna to reveal the pro-women aspects of Islamic scriptures. Too controversial for her day and society, she disappeared. Decades later after political Islam had become a player on the world stage, Muslim women in Malaysia (Sisters in Islam), India, Iran, Europe (WLUML) and the Arab world organized and wrote about the need to research and re-interpret women’s rights in Islam.
Prof. Bruce Lawrence
Sufism in, and beyond, Islam
Summary: There has been much debate about how Sufism resonates as a crucial dimension of Islam, but there have also been some groups who discuss, and even advocate, Sufism beyond Islam. This lecture will look at arguments and evidence, players and outcomes, for both approaches.
