Prof. K. Ali
Spring 2007
Women, Gender, and Islam
RN 435/735, M 3-6 pm, 145 Bay State Rd., Room 404
Office Hours: M 2-4, W 10-11, or by appt. (145 Bay State Rd., Room 402)
Phone: 617-353-4465; Email: ka@bu.edu
Updated 01/04/07
Note: Email is the best way to reach me; I check it at least twice daily. For significant
substantive queries, plan to come to office hours or make an appointment by email to meet with
me at another time.
Investigates the way Muslim religious discourse, norms, and practices create and sustain
gender and hierarchy in religious, social, and familial life. Looks at historical and
contemporary challenges posed to these structures.
Women and gender are crucial to understanding the political, social, economic and intellectual
life of Muslim communities from seventh-century Arabia to the present-day United States. This
course will cover significant moments in the religious and intellectual history of Muslim
societies and explore several modern cases. Through each, we will be asking several questions,
including: How does gender structure authority within social, religious, and family domains?
How does the tension between egalitarian and hierarchical ideals play out? What, if anything, is
specifically “Islamic” about the situations under discussion? And how have scholars, both
Western and non-Western, Muslim and non-Muslim, approached the study of these topics?
Topics include Qur’anic revelations concerning women; the early life of the Muslim community;
gendered ideals in the Sunni/Shi‘i debates and conflicts over legitimate authority in the wake of
Muhammad’s death; the “formation of the core discourses of Islam,” especially jurisprudence
and Qur’an commentary; the ideals and realities of veiling and seclusion for women in various
contexts including the Ottoman sultanate; contradictory portraits of “Muslim women’s status” in
struggles over colonialism and nationalism in Egypt and India; identity politics in contemporary
South Asian debates over Muslim personal status law; debates over gender and law in
“Islamicized” Iran; and reinterpretations of Islam in among African-American women. Our final
sessions will be devoted to questions surrounding feminism and equality, looking at women’s
exegesis and female religious movements in the Middle East. Can there be a compelling
egalitarian interpretation of the Qur’an? Are Western feminist theories are adequate to account
for the variety of gendered experiences of life and religion? Are the presuppositions of much
scholarship – that egalitarianism is desirable, that resistance to patriarchy is praiseworthy –
relevant to (all) Muslim women’s lives?
At the end of the semester, students will be capable of critically analyzing media and scholarly
discussions of Muslim women and gender in Islam. They will have an understanding of the
complex ways in which religious texts approach key issues surrounding women’s rights, roles,
and responsibilities, and the diversity of perspectives that interpreters have brought to these
questions through Muslim history. They will also have a framework for approaching the study of
women in other religious traditions.
Course Requirements and Grading:
There are three components to this course’s requirements: Class attendance and participation, a
book review essay, and a research paper.
1) Class attendance and participation are vital in a seminar setting, where much learning takes
place in conversation with others. It is necessary that you attend each class session, having read
the assigned text and being prepared to discuss it. Either individually or in pairs, depending on
the number of students enrolled, you will also be required to prepare discussion questions for one
week of class and distribute them by Friday evening prior to class via email. In our final meeting,
you will make a presentation on your research project. Course participation will account for
25% of your grade, with 5% (of your total grade) based on your project presentation.
2) A critical review, 5-6 pages long (7-8 for graduate students), of a book related to the
course topic. A suggested bibliography is attached, but you may propose a title not on the list.
More specific guidelines will be handed out on 2/5. Students must submit the title of the book
to be reviewed for approval by 2/12, but are encouraged to do so earlier, particularly if the
book must be recalled or obtained outside of the BU library. The paper is due at the beginning
of class on 3/5. This paper will account for 25% of your grade.
3) An independent research paper, 15-20 pages (undergraduates) or 25 pages (graduate
students) on a topic selected in consultation with me. Topics are to be selected by 3/19, though
earlier selection is strongly encouraged; an outline is due on 4/16. The paper is due in my box
on the second floor of the Religion building by 5 p.m. on 5/7. The research paper, including
all preparatory work, will be worth 50% of the final grade.
NOTE: With the exception of discussion questions, which must be circulated via email prior to
class, all work must be printed out and handed in as hard copy, except by prior arrangement for
a compelling reason. (Note: “My printer was out of toner” is not a compelling reason.) If you
will be leaving campus before an assignment’s due date, you must either complete and submit
your work before departure or make alternate arrangements to get a printed copy to the Religion
office by the appropriate deadline. Please do not ask for exceptions to this rule.
Policy on Late Work and Incompletes:
Late work will be penalized by one complete letter grade for each day overdue (including
weekends and holidays). Paper extensions will be granted only in exceptional circumstances, and
in no case after the original deadline for completion has passed. Students who anticipate
difficulty in meeting deadlines should contact me as far in advance of the due date as possible. A
course grade of incomplete will only be granted in cases of documented medical emergency or
for an equally compelling reason.
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Disabilities:
In accordance with University policy (see http://www.bu.edu/disability/policies/index.html), a
student who requires accommodation for a documented disability of any type should see me
immediately to discuss appropriate modifications to course requirements.
Academic Integrity:
Every student is expected to be familiar with and comply with the BU policy on academic
integrity, which can be found at: http://www.bu.edu/cas/undergraduate/conductcode.html. I will
refer any suspected case of academic misconduct to the Dean’s Office. Any assignment judged,
after a hearing by the Academic Conduct panel, to be plagiarized will receive a grade of “0.”
We will discuss plagiarism and independent work in class. Helpful resources about proper use of
sources can be found many places online. The materials available at Dartmouth College’s page
on source usage (http://www.dartmouth.edu/~sources/contents.html), especially “What is
plagiarism?” (http://www.dartmouth.edu/~sources/about/what.html), are a good place to begin.
For guidance as to how best to use sources during your writing, see the Harvard University guide
to “Writing with Sources” (http://www.fas.harvard.edu/%7Eexpos/sources/) and the Purdue
University Online Writing Lab (OWL) guide to “Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing”
(http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_quotprsum.html). Both will be especially
helpful during the writing of your research papers.
Course Texts:
The following books are available for purchase at the bookstore. Copies will also be placed on
reserve at the library. Additional readings can be printed from the CourseInfo website assigned
to this course.
While I have made an effort to include only books available in paperback for a reasonable price,
the total cost of these texts may be prohibitive. I urge you to seek out used editions (several of
these titles should be widely available) and/or to purchase them from alternate sources. If you
decide to limit your purchase of books from this list, please note that Ahmed’s book serves as a
foundational text for studies of women and Islam and will be referred to throughout the semester.
Conversely, though we will read three articles and the useful introduction in the Keddie and
Baron anthology, its other chapters are of interest but not required reading. Other purchase
decisions will depend on your individual interests.
1. Leila Ahmed, Women, Gender, and Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate (New Haven:
Yale University Press, 1992).
2. D.A. Spellberg, Politics, Gender, and the Islamic Past: The Legacy of ‘A’isha bint Abi Bakr
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1995).
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3. Nikki R. Keddie and Beth Baron, eds., Women in Middle Eastern History: Shifting Boundaries
in Sex and Gender (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991).
4. Leslie Pierce, The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993).
5. Judith E. Tucker, In the House of the Law: Gender and Law in Ottoman Syria and Palestine
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.)
6. Annelies Moors, Women, Property, and Islam: Palestinian Experiences, 1920–1990 (New
York: Cambridge University Press, 1995).
7. Margot Badran, Feminists, Islam, and Nation: Gender and the Making of Modern Egypt
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996).
8. Ziba Mir-Hosseini, Islam and Gender: The Religious Debate in Contemporary Iran
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999).
9. Carolyn Rouse, Engaged Surrender: African American Women and Islam (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2004).
10. Amina Wadud, Qur'an and Woman: Re-reading the Sacred Text from a Woman’s
Perspective (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999).
11. Saba Mahmood. Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 2004).
Course schedule:
January 22
Introduction
Week 1
The Mediterranean context and Pre-Islamic Arabia; the Coming of Islam
January 29
Readings: Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam, Chapters 1-4.
Marilyn Yalom,“Wives in the Ancient World,” from A History of the Wife (New
York: Harper Collins, 2001). To be printed from the class’s CourseInfo website.
Week 2
Sectarian Identities
February 5
Spellberg, Politics, Gender, and the Islamic Past, entire book.
Guidelines for critical book review essays handed out.
Week 3
The Classical Period: Jurists and Empires
February 12
Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam, Chapters 5-7.
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Introduction, Lutfi, Petry, and Sanders chapters in Keddie and Baron, Women in
Middle Eastern History.
Book title for review due.
Week 4
The Ottomans I
February 20 Pierce, The Imperial Harem, entire book.
Week 5
The Ottomans II
February 26
Tucker, In the House of the Law, entire book
Week 6
The Long Nineteenth Century
March 5
Moors, Women, Property, and Islam: Palestinian Experiences, entire book
Critical book review essay due.
MARCH 12 – Holiday, no classes
Week 7
Colonialism, Anti-Colonialism, and Nationalism in Egypt
March 19
Margot Badran, Feminists, Islam, and Nation, entire book; Ahmed, Women and
Gender in Islam, Chapters 8-9.
Topic and preliminary bibliography for research paper due.
Week 8
The Shah Bano Affair and Islamic Law in South Asia
March 26
Sylvia Vatuk, “’Where Will She Go? What Will She Do?” Paternalism toward
Women in the Administration of Muslim Personal law in Contemporary India,” in
Gerald James Lawson, ed., Religion and Personal Law in Secular India: A Call to
Judgment (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2001), pp. 226-248.
Peter J. Awn, "Indian Islam: The Shah Bano Affair." in John Stratton Hawley, ed.
Fundamentalism and Gender. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1994.
Selections from M. A. Wani, Maintenance Rights of Muslim Women: Principles,
precedents and trends (New Delhi: Genuine Publications; 1987).
Articles to be printed from CourseInfo.
Week 9
Iran
April 2
Mir-Hosseini, Islam and Gender, entire book
Week 10
Egypt Revisited
April 9
Mahmood, Politics of Piety, entire book
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Week 11
African-American Muslim women
April 18
Rouse, Engaged Surrender, entire book
Outline for research paper due.
Week 12
Islamic Feminism: Qur’anic interpretation
April 23
Wadud, Qur’an and Woman, entire book.
Asma Barlas, “Amina Wadud’s Hermenutics of the Qur’an,” in Suha TajiFarouki, ed., Modern Muslim Intellectuals and the Qur’an. London: Oxford
University Press/The Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2004, pp. 97-123.
Kecia Ali, “If you have touched women,” in Sexual Ethics and Islam: Feminist
Reflections on Qur’an, Hadith, and Jurisprudence (Oxford: Oneworld
Publications, 2006, pp.112-34)
Articles to be printed from CourseInfo.
Week 13
Conclusion
April 30
No new readings – student presentations on research papers.
May 7, 5 p.m. Final papers due in my box on the second floor of the Religion building
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