This session brings together presentations on specific readings on women and gender in the Islamic studies classroom. Presenters explain how they use a particular reading, in what kind of courses, and how they engage students in discussion of the assigned materials. The specific readings range from a lecture by Malak Hifni Nasif to contemporary scholarly writings by Aysha Hidayatullah, Zahra Ayubi, and Yasmin Nurgat, some which in turn engage with premodern primary texts. Presenters will discuss pedagogical strategies and participate in further conversation on readings in the undergraduate classroom, gender in Islamic studies, and feminist pedagogy.
In this presentation, I will discuss Zahra Ayubi’s 2020 article “DeUniversalizing Male Normativity: Feminist Methodologies for Studying Masculinity in Premodern Texts” in Gender, Sexuality, and Islamic Mysticism to give students a clear, rich, and nuanced understanding of pre-modern masculinity. This article is valuable to the study of Islam because Ayubi offers a methodology for studying masculinity that is applicable to any premodern text, which allows an instructor to use it in any course on premodern Islam (or other religions). Moreover, because Ayubi addresses both patriarchal interpretations by Muslim authors and anti-Muslim stereotypes held by Western feminists, this article helps students to resist a Western hegemonic vision of feminism when studying gender and Islam. I will share my specific pedagogical experience teaching the article in a course with the focus on premodern Sufi texts and offer considerations for how Ayubi’s article could enhance other courses on Islam.
Malak Hifni Nasif’s lecture "Comparisons between Egyptian and Western Women" provides a lens into early 20th century notions of gender roles in a Muslim society. It’s also a fascinating look at Egyptian views of “Western” women, from style to education to behavior to spending habits. Malak was unapologetic about her belief that all aspects of Western cultural imperialism should be contested. She uses both the Qur’an and Islamic law to argue against cultural norms and for specific standards of behavior and practice, helping introduce students to Islamic feminism. My assignment is designed to increase understanding of gender construction by examining Malak’s idealized standards for how girls and women should behave, and how this particular Egyptian Muslim woman views, contests, and sometimes applauds Western gender roles. Conveniently, there are many issues to which students can relate as they consider gender roles and construction in their own lives.
Menstruation serves as a critical site for feminist pedagogy, offering students a lens to interrogate gender, authority, and embodied religious experience. In my undergraduate course, I assign Yasmin Nurgat’s article, "Menstruation and the Ṭawāf al-Ifāḍa: A Study of Ibn Taymiyya’s Landmark Ruling of Permissibility" (Hawwa, 2020), as a case study in Islamic legal reasoning and gendered religious agency. This reading allows students to examine how juristic discourse navigates questions of purity, ritual access, and interpretive authority. To deepen engagement, I assign a scaffolded reflection in which students analyze how Ibn Taymiyya’s ruling departs from dominant legal norms, consider its implications for Muslim women’s ritual participation, and reflect on the broader stakes of legal plurality. By positioning menstruation as a site of inquiry, we illuminate hidden gendered dynamics and systemic inequities, making it relevant to disciplines such as Public Health, Anthropology, Economics, Public Policy, and Environmental Studies.
Hidayatullah’s “The Qur’anic Rib-ectomy: Scripture Purity, Imperial Dangers, and Other Obstacles to interfaith Engagement of Feminist Qur’anic Interpretation” introduces a framework to articulate the “tokenizing and surface character of multi-faith feminist conversations” and the still-felt harms of colonialist feminism, problematizing the student-lead project of comparative scriptural study the class is about to begin. Her work outlines how, in the intra-religious effort to deconstruct patriarchal hierarchies of othering, feminist theologians may be unknowingly constructing new taxonomies that “other” those who could have been partners. This critical analysis of developments in the field lends caution to our class-wide effort–where we think we may be building connection, we may be doing harm. We must proceed with caution and care. Hidayatulah’s critical analysis of the work of constructive Muslim feminist theology, a form of scholarship she identifies herself within, becomes an invitation to center doubt as a part of our project’s practice of comparative scriptural study.