Sa'diyya Shaikh (born 1969) is a South African scholar of Islam and

feminist theory Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical, fictional, or philosophical discourse. It aims to understand the nature of gender inequality. It examines women's and men's social roles, experiences, interests, chores, and femin ...

. She is an associate professor of religion at the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

. Shaikh studies Sufism in relation to

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

and

. Shaikh is known for work on gender in Islam and 'Ibn Arabi.

Biography

Sa'diyya Shaikh was born in 1969 in

Krugersdorp Krugersdorp (Afrikaans for ''Kruger's Town'') is a mining city in the West Rand, Gauteng Province, South Africa founded in 1887 by Marthinus Pretorius. Following the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand, a need arose for a major town in the west ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

Indian Muslim Islam is India's second-largest religion, with 14.2% of the country's population, approximately 172.2 million people identifying as adherents of Islam in 2011 Census. India is also the country with the second or third largest number of Muslim ...

parents. She grew up under the

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

regime and witnessed the anti-apartheid movement which influenced her to seek liberatory readings of the

Qur'an The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , s ...

and the Islamic tradition. Shaikh has published works on

Muslim women The experiences of Muslim women ( ''Muslimāt'', singular مسلمة ''Muslimah'') vary widely between and within different societies. At the same time, their adherence to Islam is a shared factor that affects their lives to a varying degree ...

and gendered violence, feminist approaches to the Qur'an and

hadith Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approva ...

, contraception and abortion in Islam, and gender and

Islamic law Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the ...

. Shaikh was a 2016-2017 fellow at the

Wissenschaftskolleg Zu Berlin The Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin (german: Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin) is an interdisciplinary institute founded in 1981 in Grunewald, Berlin, Germany, dedicated to research projects in the natural and social sciences. It is modeled ...

on the project "Gender, Justice and Muslim Ethics." Shaikh is the author of ''Sufi Narratives of Intimacy: Ibn 'Arabi, Gender, and Sexuality.'' The book explores the thought of Ibn 'Arabi from a feminist perspective. Shaikh is the co-author of ''The Women's Khutbah Book: Contemporary Sermons on Spirituality and Justice from around the World.'' Two

khutbahs ''Khutbah'' ( ar, خطبة ''khuṭbah'', tr, hutbe) serves as the primary formal occasion for public preaching in the Islamic tradition. Such sermons occur regularly, as prescribed by the teachings of all legal schools. The Islamic tradition ...

of Shaikh are featured, "Spirituality of the Ordinary" and "Divine Love, Human Love: Marriage as Heart-Cultivation".

Works

* Daniel C. Maguire and Sa'diyya Shaikh (eds). 2007. V''iolence Against Women in Contemporary World Religions: Roots and Cures''. Cleveland, Ohio: The Pilgrim Press * Shaikh, Sa'diyya. 2012. ''Sufi Narratives of Intimacy: Ibn 'Arabi, Gender and Sexuality''. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina PressReviews of ''Sufi Narratives of Intimacy: Ibn 'Arabi, Gender, and Sexuality'' * * Smith, Anthony Paul (2017). "Sufi narratives of intimacy: Ibn 'Arabi, Gender, and Sexuality." ''Theology And Sexuality.'' Routledge. 22 (16): 126 - 128 * Hammer, J. (2012). Sufi narratives of intimacy: Ibn 'Arabi, gender, and sexuality. CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, 49 (12): 2301 * Fatima Seedat and Sa'diyya Shaikh. 2022. ''The Women's Khutbah Book: Contemporary Sermons on Spirituality and Justice from around the World''. Yale University Press.

References

1969 births Living people Women scholars of Islam Proponents of Islamic feminism Scholars of Sufism South African Muslims South African women academics People from Krugersdorp South African people of Indian descent South African feminists Ibn Arabi scholars Academic staff of the University of Cape Town {{Islamic-scholar-stub South African Sufis