Margot Badran
{{short description|Scholar of Middle Eastern history and women studies}}
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| occupation = Historian, professor, author
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| known_for = Gender studies, Islamic studies, Islamic feminism
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Margot Badran is a professor of Middle Eastern history with a focus on women and gender studies. She is a well-known scholar on the topic of Islamic feminism.
Early life and education
Badran earned her BA at Trinity College Dublin, followed by her MA at Harvard University, and her PhD from the University of Oxford.{{Cite web |title=Badran, Margot |url=https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n85386317.html |website=Library of Congress |access-date=20 August 2023 |language=en}} She also has a degree in Arabic and Islamic Studies from Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt.{{Cite web |title="Islamic Feminism Is a Universal Discourse" |url=https://en.qantara.de/content/interview-with-margot-badran-islamic-feminism-is-a-universal-discourse |last=Sikand |first=Yoginder |website=Qantara.de |date=15 September 2009 |access-date=20 August 2023 |language=en}}
Career
Badran is a senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in its Middle East program.{{cite journal |last=González-Vázquez |first=Araceli |date=2012 |title=Gender and Islam in Africa: Rights, Sexuality and Law |url=https://www.insightturkey.com/book-reviews/gender-and-islam-in-africa-rights-sexuality-and-law |journal=Insight Turkey |volume=14 |issue=1 |access-date=20 August 2023}} She is also a senior fellow at the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University.{{Cite web |title=Margot Badran |url=https://www.wisemuslimwomen.org/muslim-woman/margot-badran-2/ |website=Women's Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality |date=13 August 2009 |access-date=21 August 2023 |language=en}}
After the 1991 liberation of Kuwait from Iraqi invaders, Badran traveled around the country interviewing female resistance fighters, later remarking on the risks women were forced to take in defense of their country.{{Cite news|title=Telling of Kuwaiti women's resistance role |newspaper=The Philadelphia Inquirer |page=3-M |last=Hamilton |first=Lynn |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/176153769/?terms=badran |date=30 June 1991 |access-date=22 August 2023}}
In his review of Badran's 2011 book Gender and Islam in Africa: Rights, Sexuality, and Law, An Van Raemdonck praises Badran for her interdisciplinary approach as she "brings together the work of historians, linguists, anthropologists and scholars in the fields of area studies, gender and religion studies". He cites the extensive fieldwork and research that went into the work, along with its "in-depth knowledge of regional and historical context".{{cite journal |last=Raemdonck |first=An Van |date=19 February 2015 |title=Review of Margot Badran (ed.), Gender and Islam in Africa: Rights, Sexuality and Law |url=https://brill.com/view/journals/rag/5/1/article-p118_11.xml |journal=Religion & Gender |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=118–120 |doi=10.18352/rg.10103 |s2cid=146545110 |access-date=23 August 2023|doi-access=free }} The journal African Studies Review praised Badran's work for providing analysis into "how women negotiate complex discursive and political terrains".{{cite journal |last=Cooper |first=Barbara |date=February 2013 |title=Gender and Islam in Africa: Rights, Sexuality, and Law ed. by Margot Badran (review) |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/519201 |journal=African Studies Review |volume=56 |issue=2 |pages=211–212 |doi=10.1017/asr.2013.61 |access-date=24 August 2023}}
= Islamic feminism =
Badran has done extensive research on the topic of Islamic feminism and has written numerous articles and given multiple lectures on the topic throughout the world.{{Cite web |title=Margot Badran |url=https://acmcu.georgetown.edu/profile/margot-badran/ |website=Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding |access-date=21 August 2023 |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=The Future of Islamic Feminism: Interview with Margot Badran |url=https://mronline.org/2010/09/21/the-future-of-islamic-feminism-interview-with-margot-badran/ |last=Sikand |first=Yoginder |website=Monthly Review |date=21 September 2010 |access-date=24 August 2023 |language=en}} Badran states that Islamic feminism is not an oxymoron because "it offers a holistic solution for women activists and/or intellectual-activists who are invested in gender justice but who are not interested in separating religion from their struggles".{{cite journal |last=Basarudin |first=Azza |date=2005 |title=Re-defining Feminism/s, Re-imagining Faith? Margot Badran on Islamic Feminism |url=https://inhouse.lau.edu.lb/iwsaw/raida109-110/EN/p057-088.pdf |journal=Al-Raida |volume=XXII |issue=109–110 |page=57 |access-date=22 August 2023}} Badran further states that Islamic feminism "derives its understanding and mandate from the Qur’an, seeks rights and justice for women, and for men, in the totality of their existence."{{Cite web |last=Fawcett |first=Rachelle |title=The reality and future of Islamic feminism |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2013/3/28/the-reality-and-future-of-islamic-feminism |date=28 March 2013 |access-date=22 August 2023 |website=Al Jazeera |language=en}} She also argues that Islam and feminism are not mutually exclusive.{{Cite web |title=Islam's other half |url=http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/shadya/muslimfeminism.html |url-status=deviated |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130904045528/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2008/nov/09/islam-women |date=9 November 2008 |archive-date=4 September 2013 |access-date=22 August 2023 |website=The Guardian}}
Badran has compared the efforts of women's activism in both the 1919 Egypt revolution with Egypt's 2011 revolution, noting how the 1919 revolution led to the beginning of the feminist movement in Egypt. However, she notes that the work done on Islamic feminism is not as widespread in Egypt as in other areas within the Middle East.{{Cite web |title=Margot Badran: the History of feminism in contemporary Egypt |url=https://forozorba.org/2015/03/21/margot-badran-the-history-of-feminism-in-contemporary-egypt/ |website=ForoZorba.org |date=21 March 2015 |access-date=23 August 2023 |language=en}}
Bibliography
- Opening the Gates: A Century of Arab Feminist Writing (written with Miriam Cooke) Indiana University Press (1990). {{ISBN|9780253311214}}
- Feminists, Islam, and Nation: Gender and the Making of Modern Egypt Princeton University Press (1996). {{ISBN|9781400821433}}
- Feminism Beyond East and West: New Gender Talk and Practice in Global Islam Global Media Publications (2007). {{ISBN|9788188869237}}
- Gender and Islam in Africa: Rights, Sexuality, and Law Woodrow Wilson Center Press (2011). {{ISBN|9780804774819}}
- Feminism in Islam: Secular and Religious Convergences Oneworld Publications (2013). {{ISBN|9781780744476}}
References
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Category:20th-century American women writers
Category:21st-century American women writers
Category:Alumni of Trinity College Dublin
Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford
Category:Al-Azhar University alumni
Category:American historians of Islam
Category:American Islamic studies scholars
Category:American women historians
Category:Feminist studies scholars
Category:Harvard University alumni
Category:Historians of the Middle East