Many Muslim debates regarding women are solely situated in legal or political frameworks. For example, we often find this tendency in conversations about women’s leadership in the mosque or the politics of veiling. Sa’diyya Shaikh, Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Cape Town, provides a unique approach to these discussions that puts feminis ... Show More
Sep 5
Relative Strangers: Romani Kinship and Palestinian Difference
Examining how memory, intergenerational transmission, and kinship work together, Relative Strangers (U Toronto Press, 2024) sheds light on Romani life in Palestine. Arpan Roy presents an ethnographic portrait of Dom Romani communities living between Palestine and Jordan, zooming ... Show More
56m 34s
Sep 2
Elizabeth Anne Davis, "Artifactual: Forensic and Documentary Knowing" (Duke UP, 2023)
In Artifactual: Forensic and Documentary Knowing (Duke University Press, 2023), Elizabeth Anne Davis explores how Cypriot researchers, scientists, activists, and artists process and reckon with civil and state violence that led to the enduring division of the island, using forens ... Show More
1h 6m
Aug 24
Robin Whelan, "Serving the Christian State in Late Antiquity" (Cambridge UP, 2026)
How did the state become Christian in late antiquity? Many scholars have traced the Christianization of the Roman world in the centuries following the conversion of the emperor Constantine in 312 CE. Robin Whelan, however, turns his attention away from the usual suspects in such ... Show More
1h 14m
Apr 2014
Sa’diyya Shaikh, “Sufi Narratives of Intimacy: Ibn Arabi, Gender and Sexuality” (University of North Carolina Press, 2012)
Many Muslim debates regarding women are solely situated in legal or political frameworks. For example, we often find this tendency in conversations about women’s leadership in the mosque or the politics of veiling. Sa’diyya Shaikh, Professor of Religious Studies at the University ... Show More
55m 26s
Jul 2019
Gender and Sexuality in Islam
The theme for season 5 is gender and sexuality in Islam. In our first episode we provide the framework for understanding gender, sex, and sexuality in the Islamic world. We discuss three influences on the framework: cultural beliefs, the Qur’an, and the philosophical tradition of ... Show More
22m 56s
May 2020
Ep 1 - Universalism, Secularism and Islamism: The Three Feminisms of the Arab World
In this episode, we will be diving into the various representations of feminism that exist in our world today, from the West all the way across to the Middle East. Beginning with a brief overview of the most popular Western liberal conception of feminism, we discuss why this pers ... Show More
35m 27s
Dec 2024
Shehnaz Haqqani, "Feminism, Tradition and Change in Contemporary Islam: Negotiating Islamic Law and Gender" (Oneworld, 2024)
Shehnaz Haqqani's new book Feminism, Tradition and Change in Contemporary Islam: Negotiating Islamic Law and Gender (Oneworld 2024), masterfully blends textual analysis of pre-modern and modern Islamic consensus with qualitative interviews with Muslims in the contemporary United ... Show More
1h 21m
Dec 2024
Shehnaz Haqqani, "Feminism, Tradition and Change in Contemporary Islam: Negotiating Islamic Law and Gender" (Oneworld, 2024)
Shehnaz Haqqani's new book Feminism, Tradition and Change in Contemporary Islam: Negotiating Islamic Law and Gender (Oneworld 2024), masterfully blends textual analysis of pre-modern and modern Islamic consensus with qualitative interviews with Muslims in the contemporary United ... Show More
1h 21m
Jul 2024
Mahjabeen Dhala, "Feminist Theology and Social Justice in Islam: A Study on the Sermon of Fatima" (Cambridge UP, 2024)
Fatima, the daughter of Prophet Muhammad, has an interesting legacy, one that is often shaped by sectarian differences and tensions. The sermon of Fatima, which is the focus of Mahjabeen Dhala's Feminist Theology and Sociology of Islam: A Study of the Sermon of Fatima (Cambridge ... Show More
1h 12m
Sep 2024
Faith, Femininity, and Knowing Thyself
On this week's episode, we sit down Layla K. Saleh, where we unpack the conventional views on feminism, womanhood, and the intersection of religion and modern societal norms. Layla shares her views on the impact of Western ideologies on Middle Eastern perspectives, the concept of ... Show More
38m 44s