Author Description

This volume pays tribute to the late Fatema Mernissi, a pioneering feminist sociologist and writer whose work profoundly influenced feminist and civic activism in Muslim and Arab societies and beyond. Bringing together an international group of scholars, the book explores pressing issues of women, gender, and sexuality in Muslim and Arab countries and their diasporas, engaging in a dynamic dialogue with Mernissi’s work. The collection examines Mernissi’s contributions through three key axes: her challenge to uneven transnational geopolitical power relations; her unique approach to Islamic feminism, positing compatibility between egalitarian interpretations of Islam and social justice; and her feminist decolonial approach that both deconstructs hegemonic knowledge frames and produces new forms of knowledge. With original essays by scholars of diverse disciplinary backgrounds, including anthropology, sociology, development studies, queer studies, literature, and regional studies, this volume offers fresh perspectives on Mernissi’s influential ideas. Each contributor engages with Mernissi’s work using her feminist theoretical framework while extending it to the exigencies of contemporary questions of gender and sexuality in the Middle East and North Africa.