Fatema Mernissi (1940-2015) was a Moroccan sociologist and feminist who focused on the rights of women in the Islamic world, asserting that patriarchal interpretations of Islam, rather than Islam itself, contribute to women's oppression. Her notable works include 'Beyond the Veil' and 'The Veil and the Male Elite,' where she critiques the discrimination in Muslim personal laws and challenges ethnocentric views on Muslim women in Western feminism. Mernissi's contributions to Islamic feminism emphasize the historical political roles of women in Islam and advocate for the re-evaluation of gender roles to promote women's empowerment.

1. Feminism by Fatema Mernissi (1940-2015)
Fatema Mernissi was born in Morocco on September 27, 1940, and she
passed away in Rabat on November 30, 2015. She was a Moroccan
sociologist and feminist writer. She began studying political science at the
Sorbonne in Paris in 1957 before continuing her studies in the US at Brandeis
University, where she earned her PhD in 1974.
Beyond the Veil: Male-Female Dynamics in Muslim Society, Mernissi's PhD
thesis which later became a book, acknowledges the influence Muslim
women have on the Islamic faith. Beyond the Veil has also established itself
as a classic on Arab women, particularly in the sociological and
anthropological sciences. Mernissi is recognized for her sociopolitical
stances on gender and sexual identities, particularly those that exist in
Morocco and other Muslim nations.
She claims that Islamic feminists criticize the inferior legal and social status
that is granted to women by law and custom in Islamic countries and
communities, but they dispute that Islam itself is to blame for this situation.
They contend that both the spirit and letter of the Qur'an have been distorted
and that Islam has historically been interpreted in patriarchal and frequently
misogynistic ways. Sharia law, the body of Islamic religious law, is derived

2. from the Qur'an, the religion's sacred text, as well as from the sayings and
deeds of Muhammad and his companions, the Ijma (consensus), and the
Qiyas (reasoning by analogy. Islamic feminists advocate for the egalitarian
(social equality) ethics of Islam by contesting the patriarchal interpretation
of what they refer to as the "medieval male consensus" and quoting Qur'anic
verses and hadiths that support women.
Muslim Personal Law is one of the main focuses of Islamic feminist advocacy
(also known as Muslim Family Law). Marriage, divorce, and testation—the
right of a property owner to designate who will inherit their property upon
their death—are the three main areas of law covered by MPL. Saudi Arabia,
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Sudan, Senegal, Tunisia, Egypt, Indonesia, and
Bangladesh are Muslim nations that have enacted MPL in some form. India
and South Africa are two examples of countries with Muslim minorities that
either have MPL regimes in place or are debating legislation addressing
various MPL issues. Islamic feminists have voiced opposition to the MPL
legislation in many of these nations because it discriminates against women.
Some Islamic feminists are attempting to create versions of MPL that
recognize women's rights because they think it is possible to change MPL
based on the Qur'an and Sunnah, which contains significant input from
Muslim women and does not discriminate against them. Other Islamic
feminists contend that MPL should be rejected rather than modified and that
Muslim women should seek restitution instead under the civil laws of such
states, particularly some in Muslim minority contexts that are democratic
states. Islamic feminists contest the MPL's regulation of polygyny, divorce,
child custody, support, and marital property as well as the legislation's
underlying presumptions, such as the notion that the man should be the
head of the family.
Mernissi contends that patriarchal interpretations of Islamic ethics and
beliefs rather than Islam itself are the source of female oppression in the
Islamic world. Males have always defined and interpreted Islam, and men
who studied theology and wrote in-depth analyses of the Quran and hadiths
were all interested in upholding patriarchy. She emphasizes that Muslim
women in Medina at the time of the Prophet enjoyed the same position as
men as his associates (sahabi) and were able to discuss matters of faith and
morality with him. She contends that one method by which males have made
Islam patriarchal is through the fabrication of the hadith corpus, which is
more than just manipulation. The hadith that were compiled by al-Bukhari

3. is the most trustworthy, however, only 7,257 of the 600,000 hadith that he
really gathered were verified and confirmed to be true. She makes the point
that, if there were as many as 596,725 fake hadiths in use during the time of
Bukhari, which was less than two centuries after the Prophet's passing, one
can easily picture how many made-up and apocryphal hadiths would be used
now.
Publications and their influence
Mernissi was an Islamic feminist who analyzed the development of Islamic
thinking throughout history and its contemporary forms. Her main areas of
interest were Islam and women's responsibilities. She questioned the
veracity of various hadiths and the subordination of women that she
perceives in Islam, although not necessarily in the Qur'an, through a
thorough analysis of the nature of the succession to Muhammad.
The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Islam, her most
well-known work as an Islamic feminist, is a quasi-historical analysis of
Muhammad's wives. The French version was initially published in 1987, and
the English version followed in 1991. Following that, the book was outlawed
in Morocco, Iran, and the Arab countries bordering the Persian Gulf.
She wrote extensively about gender, public and private spaces, and harem
life. An essay in her book, Scheherazade Goes West: Different Cultures,
Different Harems, titled "The Western Women's Harem," explores the
oppression and pressures that women in various countries experience solely
because of their physical attractiveness. She asserts that women must
adhere to stereotyped, culturally imposed standards, such as dress sizes,
whether she examines Moroccan society or Western society. Mernissi
asserts that these Western customs marginalize and mistreat women by
drawing a comparison between clothes size 6 and harems.
Beyond the Veil, Fatima Mernissi's debut book, was revolutionary when it
was published in 1975. Mernissi dismantled the ethnocentric prejudices that
Western culture had created against Islam, particularly against Muslim
women. In contrast to the homogeneous group of "third-world women" that
Western feminism had produced, she distinguished Muslim women.

4. Mernissi also campaigned against the presumption held by the West that
Muslim women were hapless victims of both their religion and its men.
Mernissi emphasized that neither Muslim women nor women in the West
were victims of patriarchy; rather, both groups of women were oppressed
by unique social structures within a religion or civilization that was
established to profit from the marginalization of others. Mernissi added that
although Western women wore veils, Muslim women did too, Western veils
were considerably more covert. She made the claim that youth and beauty
concealed Western women and that once a woman lost these qualities,
society rarely recognized her.
Mernissi dissected the ethnocentric methodology Western Feminism had
been employing and tried to make the diversity required within the global
Feminine movement clearer. Mernissi's contribution is revolutionary
because she made it possible for Muslim women to participate in an initially
primarily Western movement without jeopardizing their religious beliefs.
Mernissi's work demonstrated how Western feminism if it didn't take an
integrated perspective on women's issues, might be harmful to the
empowerment of women all over the world.
"If women's rights are a problem for some modern Muslim men, it is neither
because of the Koran nor the Prophet, nor the Islamic tradition, but simply
because those rights conflict with the interests of a male elite," Mernissi
states in the preface to The Veil and the Male Elite (1991), adding that she
had no doubts about this "one thing" when she finished writing the book.
Intersectionality: The Forgotten Queens of Islam
In her work, "The Forgotten Queens of Islam," Fatima Mernissi takes an
intersectional approach to understand how social and political identities
that led to discrimination shaped women's places throughout early Islamic
history. Her goal was to dispel myths about the lack of women in politics and
other positions of authority and bring to light the tremendous contributions
that women had made throughout early Islamic history. She accomplishes
this by changing how women are portrayed in historiographies and
examining the leadership roles that women played throughout Islamic
history. Even though men were awarded religious titles, she asserts that

5. women occupied influential political positions. The numerous historical
narratives she provides about fifteen women and the active roles they played
in pre-modern Islam politics serve as an example of this.
Mernissi also makes a distinction between "Political Islam," a time of
dramatic change during which women's roles were ignored or neglected,
and "Rislala Islam," a time during which women's lives underwent a
transformation. By underlining their involvement in politics, religion, and
cultural transformation, she made a significant contribution to the body of
academic work on women's prominence in Islamic history outside of their
customary positions.
Gender Roles: Women’s Rebellion & Islamic Memory
Fatima Mernissi examines how women fit into the context of modern Islam
in her book Women's Rebellion & Islamic Memory. She contributes to
redefining the mythology around sexual identity and gender roles in the
Islamic world by examining these concepts. Mernissi examines some of the
most notable topics to do with the position of Muslim women, such as the
hiding of women's contribution to the economies of Arab states. Mernissi
also explores various demographics, such as education and literacy. She
utilizes this to illustrate the significance of these elements for both the health
and empowerment of women in Islam.
Mernissi also examines how the state affects gender roles and what happens
when that state promotes inequality. In the end, Mernissi contends that the
only way for the Arab world to advance is by letting go of these oppressive
customs and standards for women. Mernissi's writing, which focuses on
challenges affecting Muslim women in the Arab world, has a significant
impact on Islamic feminism, intersectionality, and global feminism. The
difficulties of sexual identity and gender roles, in particular, as well as the
potential implications they can have on women's empowerment and health,
were some of the special issues that women in the Islamic world face.
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