I read her obit in the NYT. I downloaded two of her books from BARD, the
semi-autobiographical one about growing up in a harem, a real one, not the ones
popularized in western films.
On Jan 10, 2016, at 3:53 PM, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Truthdigger of the Week: Fatema Mernissi, a Founder of Islamic Feminism
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/truthdigger_of_the_week_fatema_mernissi_
a_founder_of_islamic_20160110/
Posted on Jan 10, 2016
By Natasha Hakimi
Fatema Mernissi was one of the founders of Islamic feminism. (Vysotsky /
CC BY-SA 4.0)
Every week the Truthdig editorial staff selects a Truthdigger of the Week, a
group or person worthy of recognition for speaking truth to power, breaking
the story or blowing the whistle. It is not a lifetime achievement award.
Rather, we're looking for newsmakers whose actions in a given week are worth
celebrating.
Born in a domestic harem in Fez, Morocco, in 1940, acclaimed sociologist
Fatema (also Fatima) Mernissi grew up with a unique perspective on the
Islamic world. At an early age, she learned from a young Sudanese girl who
was a servant in the harem that "the frontier indicates the line of power
because wherever there is a frontier, there are two kinds of creatures
walking on Allah's earth, the powerful on one side, and the powerless on the
other." [Editor's note: In her book "Dreams of Trespass," Mernissi described
post-1909 domestic harems as "in fact extended families . with no slaves and
no eunuchs, and often with monogamous couples, but who carried on the
tradition of women's seclusion," in contrast to the imperial harems perhaps
best known to Westerners from the "Arabian Nights" tales.]
Mernissi understood then, in the isolation of her home-and behind the veil
she had to wear whenever she was allowed to leave the harem, always
accompanied by a man-that she was one of the powerless.
As Morocco gained its independence from France in 1956 and domestic harems
were banned, a nationalist push allowed her to attend school and, later, to
graduate from university. She obtained degrees from Mohammed V University in
Rabat, Morocco, and the Sorbonne in Paris as well as earning a Ph.D. in
sociology from Brandeis University. Based on Mernissi's doctoral
dissertation, her first book was titled "Beyond the Veil: Male-Female
Dynamics in Modern Muslim Society." It "examines Islam from a feminist
perspective and critiques traditional, male-dominated interpretations," and
its publication set her on the path to becoming one of the founders of
Islamic feminism.
A devout Muslim, Mernissi found proof in history and in Islamic texts that
the subjugation of women was a male machination justified by "manipulations"
of sacred texts. She found no evidence in the Quran and other scriptures
that Muslim men were meant to dominate women. "The elite faction is trying
to convince us that their egotistic, highly subjective and mediocre view of
culture and society has a sacred basis," she wrote. "But if there is one
thing that the women and men of the late 20th century who have an awareness
and enjoyment of history can be sure of, it is that Islam was not sent from
heaven to foster egotism and mediocrity."
Her bold readings initially attracted criticism and even protest, according
to The Guardian:
Fatima's interpretations and deconstructions of the scriptures were
iconoclastic to establishment Islam, [but] she was not, by and large, a
target of formal censure, because of her rigorous scholarship, her respect
for and adherence to the Qur'an, her demonstrated intellectual expertise
with the Qur'an and the Hadith (the sayings attributed to the Prophet) and
their many concordances. Her empathetic style and her elegant use of
jadal-reasoned and logical argumentation, itself a Qur'anic mode-kept the
hecklers away.
In her book "Islam and Democracy," published in 1992, the feminist thinker
also analyzed the role that the first Gulf war had in turning the Arab world
against the idea of democracy, a concept many have come to conflate with
"violence and religion in the west, as perceived by Arab observers of
American broadcasts."
After a life dedicated to feminist Muslim scholarship as well as to work on
"civil society, democracy and the digital revolution," the writer died of
cancer on Nov. 30, 2015, at a clinic in Rabat.
For her widening of the scope of progressive feminism to include the
important perspectives of women in the Arab world as well as her defiance of
conservative elites who use Islam to oppress women, Fatema Mernissi is our
Truthdigger of the Week.
http://www.truthdig.com/ http://www.truthdig.com/
Truthdigger of the Week: Fatema Mernissi, a Founder of Islamic Feminism
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/truthdigger_of_the_week_fatema_mernissi_
a_founder_of_islamic_20160110/
Posted on Jan 10, 2016
By Natasha Hakimi
Fatema Mernissi was one of the founders of Islamic feminism. (Vysotsky / CC
BY-SA 4.0)
Every week the Truthdig editorial staff selects a Truthdigger of the Week, a
group or person worthy of recognition for speaking truth to power, breaking
the story or blowing the whistle. It is not a lifetime achievement award.
Rather, we're looking for newsmakers whose actions in a given week are worth
celebrating.
Born in a domestic harem in Fez, Morocco, in 1940, acclaimed sociologist
Fatema (also Fatima) Mernissi grew up with a unique perspective on the
Islamic world. At an early age, she learned from a young Sudanese girl who
was a servant in the harem that "the frontier indicates the line of power
because wherever there is a frontier, there are two kinds of creatures
walking on Allah's earth, the powerful on one side, and the powerless on the
other." [Editor's note: In her book "Dreams of Trespass," Mernissi described
post-1909 domestic harems as "in fact extended families . with no slaves and
no eunuchs, and often with monogamous couples, but who carried on the
tradition of women's seclusion," in contrast to the imperial harems perhaps
best known to Westerners from the "Arabian Nights" tales.]
Mernissi understood then, in the isolation of her home-and behind the veil
she had to wear whenever she was allowed to leave the harem, always
accompanied by a man-that she was one of the powerless.
As Morocco gained its independence from France in 1956 and domestic harems
were banned, a nationalist push allowed her to attend school and, later, to
graduate from university. She obtained degrees from Mohammed V University in
Rabat, Morocco, and the Sorbonne in Paris as well as earning a Ph.D. in
sociology from Brandeis University. Based on Mernissi's doctoral
dissertation, her first book was titled "Beyond the Veil: Male-Female
Dynamics in Modern Muslim Society." It "examines Islam from a feminist
perspective and critiques traditional, male-dominated interpretations," and
its publication set her on the path to becoming one of the founders of
Islamic feminism.
A devout Muslim, Mernissi found proof in history and in Islamic texts that
the subjugation of women was a male machination justified by "manipulations"
of sacred texts. She found no evidence in the Quran and other scriptures
that Muslim men were meant to dominate women. "The elite faction is trying
to convince us that their egotistic, highly subjective and mediocre view of
culture and society has a sacred basis," she wrote. "But if there is one
thing that the women and men of the late 20th century who have an awareness
and enjoyment of history can be sure of, it is that Islam was not sent from
heaven to foster egotism and mediocrity."
Her bold readings initially attracted criticism and even protest, according
to The Guardian:
Fatima's interpretations and deconstructions of the scriptures were
iconoclastic to establishment Islam, [but] she was not, by and large, a
target of formal censure, because of her rigorous scholarship, her respect
for and adherence to the Qur'an, her demonstrated intellectual expertise
with the Qur'an and the Hadith (the sayings attributed to the Prophet) and
their many concordances. Her empathetic style and her elegant use of
jadal-reasoned and logical argumentation, itself a Qur'anic mode-kept the
hecklers away.
In her book "Islam and Democracy," published in 1992, the feminist thinker
also analyzed the role that the first Gulf war had in turning the Arab world
against the idea of democracy, a concept many have come to conflate with
"violence and religion in the west, as perceived by Arab observers of
American broadcasts."
After a life dedicated to feminist Muslim scholarship as well as to work on
"civil society, democracy and the digital revolution," the writer died of
cancer on Nov. 30, 2015, at a clinic in Rabat.
For her widening of the scope of progressive feminism to include the
important perspectives of women in the Arab world as well as her defiance of
conservative elites who use Islam to oppress women, Fatema Mernissi is our
Truthdigger of the Week.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/truthdigger_of_the_week_fatema_mernissi_
a_founder_of_islamic_20160110/
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