Fatima Seedat

Fatima Seedat
NationalitySouth African
EducationMcGill University (Ph.D)
Occupation(s)Islamic scholar, Senior lecturer, women's rights activist

Fatima Seedat is a South African feminist, Islamic scholar and women's rights activist. [1] She is known for her scholarly work on gender and Islamic law,[2] and Islam and feminism.[3][4]

Career

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Seedat researches gender and Islamic law, Islam and feminism, and Muslim masculinity.[5] She completed her PhD at McGill University,[1] and her dissertation focused on gender and legal theory.[2]: 94–95 

She is Senior Lecturer in Gender Studies at the University of Cape Town.[5] Seedat is also Programme Convenor of the University of Cape Town's Mphil in Islam, Gender, and Sexuality with Sa'diyya Shaikh.[6]

Seedat is one of the few Muslim women to act as an imam and deliver khutbahs.[7] She is co-editor of The Women's Khutbah Book: Contemporary Sermons on Spirituality and Justice from around the World with Sa'diyya Shaikh. Two of Seedat's khutbahs are featured, "Knowing in and through Difference" and "Not a Nikah Khutbah."[8]

Seedat is one of three female Muslim Marriage Officers in South Africa.[9]

Activism

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Seedat was the parliamentary liaison for the South African Commission on Gender Equality. Seedat is the founder of Shura Yabafazi, a South African NGO that focuses on women in Muslim family law. Seedat has also worked with Equitas Human Rights Foundation, Women Living Under Muslim Laws, and UN Women Afghanistan.[1][9]

She has worked with the South African Muslim Personal Law Network, which works in conjunction with Musawah.[9] She has worked for more than 25 years with a variety of organisations to advocate for legal protections for women in Muslim marriages.[10]

Works

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Books

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  • The Women's Khutbah Book: Contemporary Sermons on Spirituality and Justice from around the World (co-editor, Yale University Press, 2022)[11]

Book chapters

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  • "South African Feminists in Search of the Sacred" in Surfacing: On Being Black and Feminist in South Africa (2021, Wits University Press)[12]
  • “Gender and the Study of Islamic Law: From Polemic to Ethics” in The Routledge Handbook on Gender and Islam (2020, Routledge)[13]
  • "Intersections and Assemblages: South Africans Negotiating Privilege and Marginality through Freedom of Religion and Sexual Difference" in Freedom of Religion at Stake: Competing Claims Among Faith Traditions, States, and Persons (2019, Pickwick Publications)[14]

Academic papers

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  • "Between Boundaries, towards Decolonial Possibilities in a Feminist Classroom Holding a Space between the Qur'an and the Bible" in Religion and Theology (2020)
  • "Gender Asymmetry and Mutual Sexual Relations in Online Legal Interpretation— Beyond the Dissonance through the Fatwas of askimam.org" in Journal for Gender and Religion in Africa (2020)
  • "Secure Between God and Man: Peace, Tranquility and Sexuality through the Pietistic Aspirations of Believing Women" with Mariam Khan in Journal for the Study of Religion
  • "Queering the Study of Islam" in Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion
  • A women’s march without God (the Father) in The Immanent Frame (2018)
  • Sexual economies of war and sexual technologies of the body: Militarised Muslim masculinity and the Islamist production of concubines for the caliphate in Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity (2017)
  • "On Spiritual Subjects: Negotiations in Muslim Female Spirituality" in Journal of Gender and Religion in Africa (2016)
  • Seedat (2013). "Islam, Feminism, and Islamic Feminism: Between Inadequacy and Inevitability". Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion. 29 (2): 25–45. doi:10.2979/jfemistudreli.29.2.25. S2CID 144930307.

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Fatima Seedat | WISE Muslim Women Fatima Seedat". WISE Muslim Women. 2009-08-11. Retrieved 2022-06-03.
  2. ^ a b Emon, Anver M.; Ahmed, Rumee (November 2018). The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Law. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-967901-0.
  3. ^ Lamptey, Jerusha Tanner (2018). Divine Words, Female Voices: Muslima Explorations in Comparative Feminist Theology. Oxford University Press. p. 6. ISBN 9780190653385.
  4. ^ Mansour, Asmaa (Spring 2022). "Decolonizing Islamic Feminism". Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion. 38 (1). Indiana University Press. doi:10.2979/jfemistudreli.38.1.25.
  5. ^ a b "Dr Fatima Seedat | African Gender Institute". www.agi.ac.za. Archived from the original on 2022-06-03. Retrieved 2022-06-03.
  6. ^ "MPhil_in_Islam_Gender_and_Sexuality | African Gender Institute". www.agi.uct.ac.za. Retrieved 2022-10-10.
  7. ^ Grung, Anne Hege (2022-11-21). Complexities of Spiritual Care in Plural Societies: Education, Praxis and Concepts. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. ISBN 978-3-11-071738-9.
  8. ^ Shaikh, Sa’diyya; Seedat, Fatima (2022-10-13). The Women's Khutbah Book: Contemporary Sermons on Spirituality and Justice from around the World. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-26903-1.
  9. ^ a b c "People : Legal Experience | African Gender Institute". www.agi.uct.ac.za. Archived from the original on 2022-10-13. Retrieved 2022-06-03.
  10. ^ Rafudeen, Auwais (June 2021). "From the Editor". Journal for Islamic Studies. 39 (1). Retrieved 9 October 2022 – via Gale.
  11. ^ Shaikh, Sa'diyya (June 2021). "Embracing the Barzakh: Knowledge, Being and Ethics". Journal of Islamic Studies. 39 (1). Retrieved 9 October 2022.
  12. ^ Reviews:
  13. ^ Reviews:
  14. ^ Forster, Dion A.; Gerle, Elisabeth; Gunner, Goran (2019-11-01). Freedom of Religion at Stake: Competing Claims among Faith Traditions, States, and Persons. Wipf and Stock Publishers. ISBN 978-1-5326-6056-6.
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