Home

Mernissi Fatima 1940 - 2015 (75)

You find in the Koran hundreds of verses to support women's rights, and perhaps four or five that do not.


QUOTES

Beyond the Veil:

Male-Female Dynamics

in Modern Muslim

Society



Fatima Mernissi (1940-2015) was a prominent Moroccan feminist writer and sociologist. She was born in Fez, Morocco, and earned a degree in sociology from the Sorbonne in Paris and a PhD in sociology from Brandeis University in the United States.

Mernissi was a pioneering figure in the field of Islamic feminism, and her work focused on the intersection of Islam, gender, and modernity. She was a vocal critic of the way women were treated in traditional Islamic societies, and argued that Islam itself was not inherently oppressive to women, but rather that it had been interpreted in a patriarchal way by male scholars.

Mernissi's most famous book, "Beyond the Veil: Male-Female Dynamics in Modern Muslim Society," was published in 1975 and is considered a landmark work in the field of Islamic feminism. In the book, Mernissi explores the ways in which the traditional practice of seclusion (hijab) has been used to control women and argues that it has no basis in Islam.

Mernissi's other notable works include "The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Women's Rights in Islam" and "Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood," a memoir of her childhood in a traditional Moroccan harem.

Mernissi was a powerful voice for women's rights in the Arab and Islamic worlds, and her work continues to inspire feminist movements today. She died in 2015 in Rabat, Morocco.