Islamic Feminism: Tradition, Authority, and Hermeneutics

In this project, I study selected contemporary interpretive projects that engage with Islamic religious sciences and which are primarily driven by the question of gender justice. These projects undertake hermeneutical studies of the Qur’an, Sunnah, and classical Islamic interpretive tradition in order to problematize patriarchal interpretations, and produce new Islamic knowledge that makes the case for gender equality and justice. The projects, produced predominantly by Muslim female scholars (and some Muslim males), are called Islamic feminism. I have two goals. The first is to analyze the hermeneutical approaches, contributions, and limits of selected transnational interpretive projects. The second goal is to conduct a case study of Women and Memory Forum (WMF), an Egyptian non-governmental organization whose mission is “the production and dissemination of alternative knowledge concerning women in Arab Region."I wish to map out the hermeneutical approaches of WMF scholars, examine the connections, similarities and differences between these Egyptian projects and the transnational ones, and investigate the politics of religious interpretation and its implications for gender justice in Egypt