31.08.2007
Seminar organised by Tampere Peace Research Institute, TAPRI
funded by Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and TAPRI
Venue: Paavo Koli Hall, University of Tampere
The success of transnational religious and feminist movements throughout the globe is simultaneously endorsing the tension between essentialized notions of Islam and the „west“ and directing the move towards reinterpreting modernity and redefining the religious sphere. Feminist scholars from within and outside Islamic faith are placing women’s rights issues at the heart of the ongoing debate on gendered Islam and multiple modernities. The path to gender equality does not necessarily have to begin by an uncritical acceptance of liberal notions of feminism and rights of the individual, but it can also go through the recognition and the re-interpretation of one’s cultural tradition. More and more feminists are, therefore, occupying growing spaces of „Ijtihad“ and are challenging androcentric interpretations of the Koran and Sunna (Muslim Tradition). Islam, rather than an obstacle on the way to emancipation, can be considered as increasing women’s space for agency. With regard to these claims, the debate on
women’s rights within Islamic framework is increasing and Islamic feminism is subject of many studies and discussions. As part of this process, we invite you to attend and take part in discussions in our seminar.
Program:
9.30 – 10.00 Welcoming words
Tarja Väyrynen, Professor, Tampere Peace Research Institute, Finland
Kirsti Westphalen, Councillor, Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland
Anitta Kynsilehto, Project researcher, Tampere Peace Research
Institute, Finland
10.00 – 11.00 1st Keynote lecture: Engaging Islamic Feminism
Margot Badran, Senior Fellow, Prince Alwaleed Center for
Muslim-Christian Understanding, Georgetown University; Associate
Professor at Northwestern University, USA
11.00 – 12.00 2nd Keynote lecture: Interrogating Islamic Feminism:
What’s in a Name?
Asma Barlas, Professor, Director of the Center for the Study of
Culture, Race, and Ethnicity, Ithaca College, NY, USA
12.00 – 12.30 Discussion
12.30 – 13.30 Lunch
13.30 – 14.30 Panel session: Islam and Feminisms in Local Contexts:
the Cases of Morocco and Turkey
Souad Eddouada, Assistant professor, Ibn Tofail University of Kenitra,
Morocco: Implementing Islamic Feminism: The case of the Family Code
Reform in Morocco
Tuula Sakaranaho, Adjunct professor, University of Helsinki, Finland:
Equal but Different? Islamic View on Women in Turkey
14.30 – 16.00 Panel session: Muslim Women in Europe
Jeanette Jouili, Post-doctoral fellow, ISIM, the Netherlands: Between
Resistance and Submission? Pious Muslim Women in Europe and the
Renegotiation of Gender
Isra Lehtinen, Islamin tieto ja dialogi ry, Helsinki, Finland: Women’s
Islam: View on the Case of Finland
16.00 – 16.30 Coffee break
16.30 – 17.30 Panel session: Positionalities and Identifications
Renata Pepicelli, PhD candidate, University of Naples, Italy: Islamic
Feminism: Identities and Positionalities
Raja Rhouni, Post-doctoral fellow, Wissenschaftkolleg zu Berlin,
Germany: Revisiting Islamic Feminist Hermeneutics
17.30 – 18.30 Discussion
18.30 – 19.00 Closing of the seminar
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Participation: Participation is free of charge. Pre-registration is
necessary by August 24th 2007.
Contact and registration: Project researcher Anitta Kynsilehto, TAPRI,
Contact TAPRI: anitta.kynsilehto@uta.fi