Fatema Mernissi, a Moroccan woman, taught sociology at the Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco but is better known in Italy and the rest of the world for her novels. Mernissi distinguished herself for her brave stands in favor of freedom and human rights from a secular point of view. She considers the precepts of the Koran as being fully compatible with principles of freedom and has worked to emphasize passages that have humanist contents, as well as those that condemn abuse of political power in general and the oppression of women in particular.

Mernissi paved the way for Islamic feminism by arguing in favor of equality between men and women. She has opposed violence and favored the implementation of women’s rights concerning divorce and inheritance on the basis of Koranic inspiration, because, she writes, “already in Medina women were citizens with full rights.” The author believes it is no coincidence these very rights, acknowledged in the words of the Prophet, have not survived in the Muslim tradition of the Sunna and of Shari’a. On the contrary, Mernissi argues that interpretations on this subject have been imprecisely passed down through generations.

Using the method of ijtihad, Mernissi has attempted to deconstruct the foundations of this misogyny. Her brave act involving a rereading and reinterpretation of Koranic sources in a liberal and humanist way has resulted in a great deal of criticism, as well as threats, from traditionalists. Her example, however, has given rise to the development of Islamic feminism and also to a feminist theology, the influence of which can be seen in Amina Wadud. Thanks to Mernissi’s success as an author, her ideas have spread beyond the sphere reserved to experts. The 2004 innovative Moroccan family law, Moudawana, is also the result of work done by women inspired by her work.

Today Fatema Mernissi asks young Muslims not to blindly follow the rules of traditionalists and literalists, and is confident that there will be a revival of critical thought, fuelled by the web’s technological revolution and by 500 Arab TV satellite channels. Her faith in young Muslims has also found a voice during these years on the pages of our Italian magazine Reset. Mernissi envisaged the nature of a political evolution not remotely Islamist, in which the political propaganda of many regimes in power would no longer enchant young people interested in consumption, wellbeing, work, and music, long before the modern protests began to make this dream a reality. “Ninety TV channels are devoted exclusively to music, and this is affecting culture far more than theological debates. In the meantime, Muslim women are strong and represent strategic power invading TV, the new industry, and still also wielding power inside families.”

Her books translated into English include the classic Beyond the Veil (1975, and a revised edition 1985 in Britain), the famous quasi-historical study of the role of Muhammad’s wives The Veil and the male Elite: a Feminist Interpretation of Islam (1991 in English), Islam and Democracy (1992), Dreams of Trespass: tales of a Harem Girlhood (1995), Forgotten Queens of Islam, Women’s rebellion and Islamic memory (1996).

Translated by Francesca Simmons