Conference Cycle
The Role of Women in Islam

[Portuguese Version]

September 27 - October 25, 2024

School of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon (Room C013)

Organising Committee | Fatima Rhorchi (Moulay Ismail University/CH-ULisboa) and Manuela Santos Silva (CH-ULisboa)

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PROGRAM

September, 27  | Women and Religion

Muslim women, contributed to the legacy of Islam as scholars, jurists, rulers, benefactresses, warriors, businesswomen, legal experts, counsellors, and within the Caliphates as Sultan’s wives, draughts and concubines. Since the dawn of Islam the Prophet’s household was looked up to by all his Companions as a beacon of guidance. His wife, Khadija (ra), who was more than his  confidante and companion, a wealthy businesswoman and trader, supported him morally and financially when he was granted prophethood; Aisha bint Abu Bakr (ra), transmitted expanses of knowledge from him, became a great jurist and scholar; Umm Salama (ra)’s counsel was accepted by the Prophet himself, at the time of the treaty of Hudaibiyyah; Hafsa (ra), daughter of Umar ibn Al-Khattab was the first person to be entrusted with the written Qur’an after the death of her father. But the drastic change in the situation since then raises the question as what are the causes of the serious setback in women’s status in the Muslim world? The suggested activities bellow will endeavour to elucidate such dilemma by shedding light on the different processes and dynamics that Muslim women underwent.   

‘Muslima Theology'

Due to the monopolizing male tradition of interpretation of religious texts validates the relegation of women to a secondary political and social position in the Muslim world. This lead to the creation of Feminist scholars’ interpretation of the sacred text and spiritual spaces: The first focus will be on “Muslima theologians” in order to trace some aspects of the systematically marginalized and preempted female interpretive rhetoric and challenge the hegemonic and exclusive male norms of interpretation, affecting the social and cultural status of women in the Muslim societies in general and Moroccan society(as a case study) in particular.

Gender and Patriarchy

The second aim is exploring the dynamics and changes witnessed in Islamic society and thought with regard to gender. Several issues will be considered such as gender equality, gender and public sphere, Feminist readings of history, body politics, women and agency, etc. The ultimate aim of the discussion is to raise an academic debate about gender and the struggle to deconstruct patriarchal and normative discourse in Muslim societies.

Gender Relations

The third subject matter will be on different cultural and religious ideas on gender relations that pertain to the hijab, the khulwa, the ‘Awra, Islamic feminism, and how Muslim women negotiate race, class, and gender.

• Women and the veil.
• Women and polygamy.
• Women and the harem

Islamophobia

The fourth talking point will be Islamophobia and the political rhetoric of “war on terror” and “clash of civilizations,” significant issues concern the gap between media representation, on one hand, and self-representation, on the other hand, and how Muslim women are making sense of their own lives and identities drawing on different messages and discourses.

October, 4 | Islamic Feminism

The objective of this discussion is to modify the stereotypical assumption that in traditional Medieval Islamic societies women were somehow ‘submissive, and invisible’. Previous works on Islamic History give little information on women. Similarly, the harem has not been properly historicized. It has suffered from the timelessness of the Orient that Edward Said discussed in Orientalism, that is the Orient as a zone of time locked out in a premodern past (Said 1978:231, 235, 278-9). Muslim women are not really well-known, since most researchers ignore them, considering them ‘invisible’, reinforcing the stereotypes of passive subservient Muslim women. In this respect, several aspects of Muslim women's history will be discussed and Comparisons will also be made with women from other places, both inside and outside of the Arab and Islamic world.

• Women and power
• Sultanian Harem in Muslim Monarchy
• Patronage and the role of women

October, 11 | Islamic History

The fifth activity will focus on gender-related perspectives in the study of religion in Muslim countries and Morocco in particular. The issues discussed in general will be:

• The Body and sexuality in Islam  (in general)
•  Gendering Political Islam  (in general)

The next component of the activity will be the case study of “Moroccan Islamic Feminism”(as a case study), in which various gendered approaches to Islam in Morocco will be examined:

• Secular vs spiritual feminism
• Salafi vs Sufi feminism.
• The body and sexuality in the religious discourse in contemporary Morocco. Ideologies of gender and sexuality in Islam. 
• The Moroccan State’s reconstruction of gender in the religious field through the Murshidat and Alimat and on how such reform impacts both radical Islam and patriarchal ideologies and norms. 
• Configuration of ‘feminine’ and sexuality in religious discourse.
• Women’s Property Rights in Islamic Law.
• Women and Inheritance in Islamic Law.
• Women and popular religiosity
• Women and Sufism
• Women Islamic scholars
• Women and public life

October, 18 | Queenship in Islam

Muslim queens are not really well-known, since most researchers ignore them, considering them ‘invisible’ or forgotten as Fatima Mernissi calls them in her book (The Forgotten Queens of Islam), reinforcing the stereotypes of passive subservient Muslim women. In this respect, several aspects of Muslim women's queenship will be discussed and Comparisons will also be made with women who wielded power in different dynasties, both inside and outside of the Arab and Islamic world; examples from Al-Andalus, Morocco, Egypt, Baghdad and the Far East will be given.

• Sultana Zubayda, wife of the ninth century Caliph, Harun Ar-Rasheed, is famous for her contributions building water resources and guest houses for pilgrims along major routes leading to Makkah. She was an intellectual who expressed her political views in public and even supported poets and writers regardless of their religion, religious scholars and the needy. 
• Sultana Arwa al-Sulayhi, an eleventh century Yemeni who ruled for 71 years and was known as the Noble Lady.
• Sultana Zaynab Al-Nafzawiyyah started as a concubine and became an Empress consort in the eleventh century during the Almoravid dynasty in Morocco. Zaynab became wife of Yusuf Ibn Tachfin (r. 1061-1107) had a crucial impact on the course of events in the empire since its foundation.
• Sultana Assayyida al-Hurrah (1485- 1561) was a governor of Tetouan.  She managed to control the Western half of the Mediterranean for well over 30 years.
• Sultana Shajarat al-Durr, who took control of Egypt after the death of her husband in the thirteenth century. 
• Sultana Dhayfa Khatun, the niece and daughter-in-law of Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi, after the death of her son, King Abdul Aziz, became the queen of Aleppo and ruled for six years. During her reign, she faced threats from the Crusaders, Mongols and Seljuks. 
• Sultana Sitt al-Mulk was a Fatimid princess from Egypt, whose expert administration was in accordance with Islamic laws.
• Sultana Razia was the only female to sit on India's throne in Delhi for four years in the thirteenth century. 
• Sultana Hurrem (1500CE), also called Roxelana, was enslaved in the Turks raids on Ukraine, during the reign of Sultan Salim and was presented at the Ottoman palace to King Suleyman, who later married her. She is the founder of a number of institutions of which include a mosque complex in Istanbul which is home to a Madrasa and a public kitchen; cifte hamam (double bathhouse for both men and women), two schools and a women's hospital. She also built four schools in Makkah and a mosque in Jerusalem.

 Women and politics in the medieval Muslim world

• Al-Andalus
• Marroco

October, 25 | Women in the literary Arts in the medieval Muslim world

• Al-Andalus
• Marroco

Women and Charity in the medieval Muslim world

• Fatima al-Fihriyya in Fez, In the ninth century Morocco, there was a woman who founded the al-Qarawwiyyin mosque. Established in the year 859 AD, the Qarawwiyyin mosque, through which Arabic numbers became known, and used, in Europe, had the oldest and possibly the first university in the world and is still functioning. Students traveled here from all over the world to study Islamic studies, languages ​​and sciences.