MWANAFALSAFA
Fatema Mernissi
فاطمة المرنيسي
- Lifespan
- 1940 – 2015
- Region & background
- Morocco — born in Fez, died in Rabat
- Intellectual tradition
- Sociology; feminist reading of Islamic history and texts
Key ideas
- Gender and power as structures of society, not natural facts
- Critical re-reading of religious and historical sources
- Recovering women’s presence in Islamic history
- Dialogue between cultures about freedom and democracy
Fatema Mernissi was born in Fez on 27 September 1940 and died in Rabat on 30 November 2015. After studying political science at Mohammed V University, she continued her studies at the Sorbonne and at Brandeis University, where she obtained her doctorate in 1973. She taught sociology at Mohammed V University and later worked as a researcher at its University Institute for Scientific Research.
Her first book, Beyond the Veil (1975), analysed male-female dynamics in Muslim society. In The Veil and the Male Elite she re-examined early Islamic sources to question interpretations used to restrict women’s rights, and in Forgotten Queens of Islam she recovered the history of women who held political power. Her memoir Dreams of Trespass and works such as Scheherazade Goes West and Islam and Democracy reached a wide international readership. She received the Prince of Asturias Award in 2003.
Notable works
- Beyond the Veil: Male-Female Dynamics in a Muslim Society, 1975
- Le Harem politique (The Veil and the Male Elite), 1987
- Sultanes oubliées (The Forgotten Queens of Islam), 1990
- Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood, 1994
- Scheherazade Goes West, 2001