Asma Barlas
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Asma Barlas is a Professor of Politics and Director of the Center for the Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity at Ithaca College, New York. Her views and interpretations of Islam have been called "Islamic feminism," but she herself rejects this term, unless it is defined as "a discourse of gender equality and social justice that derives its understanding and mandate from the Qur’an and seeks the practice of rights and justice for all human beings in the totality of their existence across the public-private continuum."
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[edit] Biography
Born in Pakistan, Barlas was one of the first women to be inducted into the Foreign Service. Her career was ended when General Zia ul Haq fired her for criticism of his military regime. She joined the opposition paper The Muslim as assistant editor, but fled the country in 1983.
In her recent work, she has focused on the way Muslims produce religious knowledge, especially patriarchal exegesis of the Qur'an, a topic she has explored in her book, "Believing Women" in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur'an. She has also written numerous editorials for The Daily Times, Pakistan.
Dr. Barlas is former chair of the Department of Politics and founding director of the Center for the Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity at Ithaca College. She has a B.A. in English Literature and Philosophy, an M.A in Journalism from Pakistan, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in International Studies from the University of Denver in Colorado.
[edit] Books
- Islam, Muslims, and the U.S.: Essays on Religion and Politics (India, Global Media Publications, 2004)
- "Believing Women" in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur'an (University of Texas Press, 2002).
- Democracy, Nationalism, and Communalism: The Colonial Legacy in South Asia (Westview Press, 1995)
