Current Positions:

• Professor of English & Comparative Literature

Department of English Language & Literature, Faculty of Arts

Cairo University.

 

• Founding member & (current) Chairperson of the Board

The Women and Memory Forum.

Education

Ph.D., 1987:  University of California, Berkeley. USA

Comparative Literature Department

Double major: English & Arabic literature

Thesis title: A Study of the Poetry of Al-Shushtari

 

M.A., 1981:   North Carolina State University, USA

English Department

Major: English literature

Thesis title: Cleopatra in Shakespeare and Shawqi

 

B.A., 1978:    Cairo University, Egypt

Department of English Language & Literature

Professional Experience

 

1. Academic:

• Teaching experience at Cairo University since 1987: undergraduate & graduate courses in poetry, literary criticism, comparative literature, and medieval studies.
• Teaching experience at North Carolina State University (1979 – 1981): courses in freshman composition and comprehension, and introduction to literary genres.
• Teaching experience at University of California at Berkeley, in Comparative Literature Dept. (1982 – 1989): courses in comparative topics in English & Arabic literature; in Dept. of Near Eastern Studies: courses in preliminary/ intermediate/ advanced Arabic as a foreign language.
• Visiting Associate Professor in the Dept. of Near Eastern Studies, University of California-Berkeley: Coordinator of the summer intensive Arabic Program (summers of 1994, 1997).
• Teaching experience at Qatar University, Dept. of English Literature & Linguistics (2006 – 2009), as Professor of English literature: undergraduate courses in English literary genres of poetry, drama, and short fiction, and upper-level seminars and capstone courses.
• Teaching experience at Zayed University, Institute of Islamic World Studies (UAE) – (Spring semester 2013): MA program course on “Women & Gender in Muslim Societies.”
• Supervising graduate research and academic theses on medieval comparative literature, women’s literature, feminist theories, mystical poetry, and Islamic cultural studies.

 

2. Scholarly Activities:

• Attended and participated in numerous conferences and symposiums locally, regionally, and internationally—and invited to give seminars and specialized lectures—on cross-cultural issues and comparative literature, women’s history in medieval Islam, gender issues in the Islamic and Arabic tradition, and cultural history of women in Islam. The following are only selected highlights:
• Received a three-month research fellowship from the ICRW (International Center of Research on women) in Washington, D.C. (April – June 1999), to conduct research on women and gender in Qur’anic exegetical literature.
• Participated in the Conference on “Women in the Islamic World – Muslim Women in Germany: Positive Role Models,” organized by the Federal Foreign Office, in Berlin, May 24, 2004.
• Participated in the 45^th Congress of the Indonesian “Aisyiyah” Organization in Malang, East Java on July 2^nd, 2005 and its International Seminar on “The Impact of Globalization and Neo-liberalism on Humankind.” Gave a paper entitled The Challenges and Opportunities of Muslim Women in the Era of Globalization.
• Lectured on The Role of Muslim Women in the Modern World in the Institution of “Dar al-Salam” in East Java, Indonesia, (July 4-5, 2005)
• Received a three-week Fulbright scholarship at Shippensburg University, PA in USA (November 2006) under the “Visiting Muslim Specialist Program,” to lecture on Islamic and Arabic culture.
• Participated with a paper entitled “Articulating Gender: Muslim Women Intellectuals in the Pre-modern Period” in the regional & international conference on Arab Women: Past and Present, in Doha, Qatar, March 3-5, 2006.
• Participated in Workshop on “Reconsidering Islamic Feminism: Deconstruction or the Quest of Authenticity?” organized by the Program of “Europe in the Middle East; the Middle East in Europe” of the Berlin-Brandenburgische Academy, in Berlin, April 26-28, 2007.
• Invited to speak regularly to MESP (the Middle Eastern Studies Program) in Cairo on the status of women in Islam and Islamic feminism.
• Attended the launch of “Musawah Global Meeting for Equality & Justice in the Muslim Family,” in Kuala Lumpur, February 13 – 17, 2009, and participated in the workshops on knowledge building.
• Participated in the Research Project on the Cultural History of Women in the Arabian Gulf, (the Qatar Foundation) 2007-2009, as member of Advisory Board.
• Participated in the Fourth International Congress on Islamic Feminism (Madrid, October 21 – 24, 2010), with a presentation entitled: “The Future of Islamic Feminism and the Production of Knowledge: Inter-textual Readings.”
• Attended the 12^th Mediterranean Research Meeting, organized by the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies of the European University Institute, held in Montecatini Terme, 6-9 April 2011, and co-directed the workshop: “The Many Faces of Islamic Feminism.” Also participated with a paper entitled “What’s Done can be Undone: Un-interpreting gender hierarchy in Qur’anic exegesis.”
• Received a CASAW (Center for the Advanced Study of the Arab World) Visiting Fellowship in the School of Languages Linguistics and Cultures, at the University of Manchester (May 1^st –  June 7^th, 2011); presented a seminar entitled: “Christian and Muslim Women Mystics in the Middle Ages: Interpreting Medieval Female Spirituality.”
• Joined the “Musawah Knowledge Building Initiative” project; attended the Conceptual Workshop on Developing an Egalitarian Understanding of qiwamah and wilayah, November 24-26, 2011 in Amman, Jordan; participated with a paper entitled: “The Interpretive Legacy of qiwamah as Exegetical Construct.”
• Organized and coordinated the international conference “Feminism and Islamic Perspectives: New Horizons of Knowledge and Reform” – in cooperation with DEDI, Kvinfo, & The Women and Memory Forum (Cairo, March 18-19, 2012).
• Participated in the international workshop “Aesthetics of the Sublime” organized by the Orient Institute-Beirut & Heidelberg University (Cairo, 15-17 December, 2012), with a presentation entitled “ ‘Bride of the Qur’an’: An Aesthetic Reading of surat al-Rahman.”
• Participated in the tenth annual conference: U.S.-Islamic World Forum in Doha, Qatar, June 9-11, 2013.
• From 2014-2020, participated in several conferences and symposiums in Egypt, Morocco, Tunis, Lebanon, Italy, and Austria. Since 2020, delivered several lectures on women’s cultural history in the Islamic tradition, Islamic feminist research, and gender issues in Islamic discourses and Qur’anic interpretation.
• Most recent conference participation: “What is an Ethical Tafsir of Gender?” in the International Conference on Islam and ethics in Contemporary Societies, Cape Town, 25-26 January 2023.
• Author of several book reviews in printed magazines and newspapers, and on-line.

 

 

3. Activism:

• Founding member of The Women and Memory Forum (Egyptian NGO & Research Center) since 1996. Experience in conducting research projects, preparing publications, organizing conferences and symposiums, and coordinating gender education workshops.
• Member in the Knowledge Building Team of the “Musawah” Movement, based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with the goal of implementing equality and justice through reforming family laws in Muslim countries.
• Cooperated (2011-2013) with Mada Media Institute and Nun Forum (Egyptian NGO) in societal activities and training programs of mosque imams, promoting dialogue with official religious scholars and raising awareness on women’s citizenship and rights in Islam.
• Conducts training sessions and public events/lectures on gender knowledge and Islamic feminism.

    

4. Board memberships:

• Editorial Board member of IJMES (2010-2012).
• Previous Advisory Board member of Center for Epistemological Studies—Cairo.
• Editorial Advisor of Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics
• Previous Board member of The Danish Egyptian Dialogue Institute (DEDI)
• Previous Member of the International Advisory Group (IAG) of “Musawah”
• Editorial Board member of al-Muslim al-Mu’asir Journal

 

Fields of specialization/ Research interests

 

• Topics in medieval comparative literature, mystical poetry, English poetry.
• East-West cross-cultural relations and historical interaction.
• Female spirituality, women’s mysticism in Christianity and Islam, feminist theology.
• Re-reading Arab & Islamic cultural history from a gender-sensitive perspective, gender issues in Islamic history & culture, women in religious discourses, and Islamic feminism.

 

Publications

 

1. In English:

• “The Symbolic Function of Metaphor in Medieval Sufi Poetry,” Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics, 12 (1992), 40-57.
• “The Worshipped Worshipper and the Deified Soul in Shushtari and St. John of the cross.” In Proceedings: The Second International Symposium on Comparative Literature. Cairo: Cairo University, 1993, pp. 227-43.
• “Abrogation of the Mind in the Poetry of Jalal al-Din Rumi,” Alif, 14 (1994), 37-63.
• “Historical Facts or Fallacies? The Character of the Prophet Muhammad.” In Proceedings: The Third International Symposium on Comparative Literature. Cairo: Cairo University, 1995, pp. 347-59.
• “Mystical Elements in John Keats.” In Cairo Studies in English. Cairo: Cairo University, 1995, pp. 147-64.
• “To Write or Not to Write? That is the Question.” In Proceedings: First EFL Skills Conference: New Directions in Writing. Cairo: The American University of Cairo, 1996, pp. 111-15.
• “The Religious Other: Christian Images in Sufi Poetry,” Cairo Papers in Social Science, 19, no. 2 (1996), 96-108.
• “The Representation of Female Spirituality in Alexander Pope’s ‘Eloisa to Abelard.’” In Proceedings: The Fourth International Symposium on Comparative Literature. Cairo: Anglo-Egyptian bookshop, 1997, pp. 589-609.
• “Allegory of the Soul: A Reading of Rumi’s Arabic Poetry.” In Tradition and Modernity in Arabic Literature. Issa Boullata and Terri Deyoung. Fayatteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1997, pp. 247-71.
• “Islamic Sources in Petrus Alfonsi’s ‘Disciplina Clericalis.’” In Proceedings of the International Conference: Comparative Literature in the Arab World. Cairo: Cairo University, 1998.
• “The Image of the Saracen Sultan in Mandeville’s Travels.” In The Arabs and Britain: Changes and Exchanges. Cairo: The British Council, 1999, pp. 35-45.
• “A Muslim Woman’s Reflections on Gender.” (1999) islam21.net/pages/about/about/htm
• “Reading History as Text: A Postmodernist Approach to the Medieval Past and the Case of Women Mystics.” In Proceedings: The Sixth International Symposium on Comparative Literature. Cairo: Cairo University, 2001, pp. 647-667.
• “Islamic Feminism: What’s in a Name? Preliminary Reflections,” AMEWS Review, xv, xvi Winter/Spring (2001), 1-4.
• “Teaching the Words of the Prophet: Women Instructors of the Hadith (14^th & 15^th century).” HAWWA: Journal of Women of the Middle East and the Islamic World, 1, no. 3 (2003), 306-328.
• “Al-Shushtari, Abu al-Hasan.” In Medieval Iberia: An Encyclopedia. Michel Gerli & Samuel Armistead. Taylor and Francis Publishers, 2003.
• “Articulating Gender: Muslim Women Intellectuals in the Pre-modern Period,” Arab Studies Quarterly, 32, no. 3 (2010).
• “Women’s Religious Activities in the Arabian Peninsula: A Historical Outlook.” In Gulf Women. Amira Sonbol and Kira Dreher. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2012.
• “Representations: Memoirs, Autobiographies, Biographies: Writing in Another Language: Overview.” Encyclopedia of Women & and Islamic Cultures. General Editor Suad Joseph. Brill, 2011. Brill Online. http://www.brill.nl/
• Feminism and Islamic Perspectives: New Horizons of Knowledge and Reform (Cairo: WMF, DEDI, Kvinfo, 2013).
• “To Be or Not to Be…a Muslim feminist in the Arab (Islamic) Spring,” AMEWS E-Bulletin, 1 (January 2013), 1-2.
• “Satellite Piety: Contemporary TV Islamic Programs in Egypt.” In Popular Culture in the Middle East and North Africa: A Postcolonial Outlook. Mounira Soliman & Walid El Hamamsy. New York: Routledge, 2013.
• “Rings of Memory: ‘Writing’ Muslim Women and the Question of Authorial Voice.” The Muslim World, 103, no. 3(2013), 320-333.
• “Turning the Tables: Perspectives on the Construction of Muslim Manhood,” HAWWA 11, 2-3(2014), 89-107.
• “The Interpretive Legacy of qiwamah as an Exegetical Construct.” In Men in Charge: Rethinking Authority in Muslim Legal Tradition. Ziba Mir-Hosseini, Mulki al-Sharmani, & Jana Rumminger. UK: Oneworld Publications, 2015.
• “Islamic Feminism and the Equivocation of Political Engagement: ‘Fair is Foul, and Foul is Fair.’” In Rethinking Gender in Revolutions and Resistance: Lessons from the Arab World. Maha El Said, Lena Meari, & Nicola Pratt. UK: Zed Books, 2015.
• “Islamic Feminist Tafsir and Qur’anic Ethics: Rereading Divorce Verses.” In Islamic Interpretive Tradition and Gender Justice: Processes of Canonization, Subversion, and Change. Nevin Reda & Yasmin Amin. Canada: McGill, 2020.
• “Freedom of Religion in Qur’anic Exegesis” In Freedom of Expression in Islam. Muhammad Khalid Masud, Kari Vogt, Lena Larsen, & Christian Moe. London: I.B.Taurus, 2021.
• “Bride of the Qur’an: An Aesthetic Reading of Surat ar-Rahman.” In Religion and Aesthetic Experience. Eds. Sabine Dorpmuller et al. Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing, 2018. Pp. 91-106.
• “Marriage Ethics in the Qur’an.” In Justice and Beauty in Muslim Marriage. London: Oneworld, 2022.
• “Ethics of Gender Justice.” In The Women’s Khutbah Book. Yale University Press, 2022.
• “Islamic Feminist Tafsir and Qur’anic Ethics.” In Islamic Interpretive Tradition and Gender Justice . McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2020.
• “Structural Unity, Sub-text, and Gender in Surat al-Najm” (research in progress).
• “The Egalitarian Principle of ‘Qist’ as Lived Ethics: Towards a Liberational Tafsir,” Religions (2023), vol.14, Issue 19, 1087.
• “Qur’anic Textuality and the Potential of Aesthetic (jamali) Interpretation,” (under publication in Journal of Feminist Studies).

 

2. In Arabic:

 

• “Tafsir al-tafsir: halit rabi’ah al-‘adawiya” (Interpreting Interpretation: The Case of Rabi’ah al-‘Adawiyah), Hagar, 1 (1992).
• “Al-maskh fi Alf laylah wa-laylah” (Metamorphosis in the Arabian Nights), Fusul, 13:1 (1994).
• “Imra’ah min ummati, hadah ‘amaluha: Rabi’ah al-‘Adawiyah marra ukhra” (‘This is the work of a woman from my people’: Rabi’ah al-Adawiyah Again), Hagar, 3/4 (1996).
• “Al-muhaddithat fi al-tarikh al-islami” (Women Hadith-Scholars in Islamic History), Hagar 5/6 (1998).
• “Qira’ah fi tarikh ‘abidat al-islam” (A Reading in the History of Islam’s Women Worshippers/Mystics). In Zaman al-nisa’ wa-al-dhakirah al-badilah (Women’s Time and Alternative Memory), eds. Hoda Elsadda & Omaima Abou-Bakr. Cairo: The Women & Memory Forum, 1998.
• “Al-nisa’ wa-mihnat al-tibb fi al-tarikh al-islami” (Women and the Medical Profession in Islamic History). Awraq al-dhakirah Series (Occasional Papers), no. 1, (Cairo: Women & Memory Forum, 1999).
• “Al-mar’ah wa-al-hayah al-diniyah fi al-‘susur al-wusta” (Women and Religious Life in the Middle Ages between Islam and the West). Occasional Papers, no. 2, (Cairo: Women & Memory Forum, 2001).
• “Al-khitab al-tarikhi al-niswi ‘inda Qadriyah Hussein” (The Feminist/Historical Discourse in Qadriyah Hussein’s Shahirat al-Nisa’). In Proceedings: Arab Women in the 1920s. Beirut: Tajamu’ al-bahithat al-lubnaniyat, 2001.
• “Al-mar’ah al-arabiyah wa-al-wa’y al-dini al-tahrruri” (Arab Women and Religious Liberational Consciousness). In Proceedings: The Arab Woman and the Transformations of a New Era. Damascus, Syria: Dar al-fikr, 2002.
• Al-Mar’ah wa-al-Jindar (Woman and Gender: Eliminating Social and Cultural Discrimination of the Sexes). Damascus, Syria: Dar al-fikr, 2002.
• “Surat al-rajul fi al-kitabat al-islamiyah” (The Image of Men in Modern and pre-Modern Islamic Writings). In A’isha Taymur: tahaddiyat al-thabit wa-al-mutaghayyir fi al-qarn al-tasi’ ‘ashar (A’isha Taymur and the Challenges of Social Transformation), ed. Hoda Elsadda. Cairo: Women & Memory Forum, 2004.
• “Khitab al-usuliyah al-hadathiyah wa-tarikh al-nisa’” (The Discourse of Modernist Fundamentalism and Women’s History), Tibah: Journal in Feminist Theory, 3 (2003).
• Introduction, Qadriya Hussein, Shahirat al-nisa’ fi al-‘alam al-islami (Famous Women in the History of the Islamic World, by Qadriya Hussein). Cairo: Women & Memory Forum, 2004.
• “Al-Niswiyah al-islamiyah: ishkaliyat al-dakhil wa-al-kharij” (Islamic Feminism: Internal and External Problematics), Tibah 7 (2006).
• “Tabi’at al-mar’ah: muqarabat” (Approaches to Women’s Nature). Cairo: Women & Memory Forum, 2007.
• “Al-nashat al-iqtisadi al-hadari lil-nisa’ fi misr al-islamiyah” (Women’s Economic Activities in Urban Islamic Egypt). Occasional Papers, no. 4, (Cairo: Women & Memory Forum, 2007).
• “Al-tanqib al-watha’iqi wa-al-tarikhi wa-‘i’adit bina’ tarikh al-mar’ah” (Investigating Historical Records/Documents and Re-constructing Women’s History). In Muraja’ah fi khitabat mu’asirah hawl al-mar’ah (Re-visioning Contemporary Discourses on Women), ed. Amani Salih. Cairo: Hiwar al-hadarat/Cairo University, 2007.
• “Ittijahat wa-tayyarat fi al-bahth al-niswi al-mu’asir” (Trends and Directions in Contemporary Islamic Feminist Research). Forthcoming in Proceedings of Al-niswiyah al-‘arabiyah—ru’yah naqdiyah (Arab Feminisms-A Critical Perspective), American University of Beirut, October 4-7, 2009.
• “Khitab al-rajul min manzur Islami niswi,” (‘The Discourse/Address to Men’ from an Islamic Feminist Perspective), Al-Misbar, 47 (2011).
• (Ed.) Al-niswiyah wa-al-dirasat al-diniyah (Feminism and Religious Studies: a Reader), trans. Randa K. Aboubakr. Cairo: WMF, 2012.
• (Ed.) Al-niswiyyah wa-al-manzur al-islami: afaq jadidah lil-ma’rifah wa-al-islah (Cairo: WMF, 2013).
• “Al-qiwamah: nahwa ru’yah ijtihadiyyah badilah,” (Qiwamah: towards an alternative ijtihadi vision), publication series of Nun al-Hadarah, ed. Fatima Hafiz, general ed. Hisham Ga’far. Cairo: Mada Institute, 2014.
• “Min wahy al-hadatha al-mumkinah,” (The ‘Past’ and the Colonial Discourse in Literary and Historical Criticism), in al-Mandil al-ma’qud (Studies in the Works of Radwa Ashour). Cairo: Dar al-Shorouq, 2017.
• “Al-mashru’ al-niswi fi al-islam bayn al-markaz wa-al-hamish,” (The Feminist Project in Islam between the Center and the Margin), in Democracy, 69 (Jan. 2018), 152-56).
• “Al-gadal hawla al-ta’ddud al-zawgat wa-huquq al-ginsayn min manzur niswi islami” (The debate over polygamy and gender rights from an Islamic feminist perspective), in ASWATONLINE (March 20, 2019).
• “Al-manhaj al-niswi fi tadabbur al-Qur’an al-karim: fahm khitab al-qist,” in Al-Mesbar, 167 (November, 2020).
• “Mafhum al-rujulah wa-al-naw’ ‘inda al-sufiyyat: tarajim al-Sulami namudhajan, in Anmat al-Rujulah, edited by Amal Qrami (Lebanon/Iraq: Dar al-rafidain, 2022).
• “Al-ma’rifah al-diniyah fil- ‘alam al-‘arabi min manzur niswi: min al-naqd ila ‘i’adit al-bina’ (Religious Knowledge in the Arab World: from Criticism to Re-building). In Silsilat al-muhadarat al-sanawiyyah: Fatmah al-Mernissi. Beirut: Arab Council for       Social    Sciences, 2023.

 

3. In French:

• “Le feminisme islamique et la production de la connaissance: perspectives dans l’Egypte postrevolutionnaire,” Feminismes islamiques, ed. Zahra Ali. Paris: La Fabrique editions, 2012.
• Le feminism islamique et l’ambiguite de l’engagement politique.” Multitudes, 60 (automne 2015), 198-208.

 

4. Translations—from Arabic to English:

• Princess Dhat al-Himma, Shawqi Abdel Hakim. Cairo: Foreign Cultural Information Department, 1995. Critical Introduction.
• “The Pasha’ Beard,” Sekina Fouad. In A Voice of Their Own: Short Stories by Egyptian Women. Angele Botros Samaan. Cairo: Foreign Cultural Relations, 1994.
• “Al-Tayyib Salih: Myth-Maker,” Ahmad Shams al-Din Haggagi. In Alif: A View from Within. Ferial Ghazoul. Cairo: The American University Press, 1994.

 

From English to Arabic:

• Entries in Mawsu’at al-Masrah (Encyclopedia of the Theatre: translation of The Oxford Companion to the Theatre, 1983). Ed. Fatma Moussa. Cairo: Al-Hay’a al-misriya al-amma, 1998.
• Entries in Mawsu’at al-nisa’ wa-al-thaqafat al-islamiyyah (Arabic on-line translation of EWIC).