Zainab Alwani is a Muslim American activist and scholar. She is Founding Director and Associate Professor of Islamic Studies at Howard University School of Divinity.

Biography

Zainab Alwani was born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1962. She is the daughter of

Taha Jabir Alalwani Taha Jabir Al-Alwani (طه جابر علواني), Ph.D. (1935 – March 4, 2016), was the President of Cordoba University in Ashburn, Virginia, United States. He also held the Imam Al-Shafi'i Chair in the Islamic Legal Theory at The Graduate Sch ...

. Alwani and her family were forced to flee Iraq when she was 7. The family went to Egypt and later Saudi Arabia. As a young woman, Alwani studied at

Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University (IMSIU) (), commonly known as Al-Imam University, is a public university in Baladiyah al-Shemal in northern Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It was founded in 1953. represented by the College of Sharia Sciences (no ...

. She received her PhD in Islamic jurisprudence (

Usul al-Fiqh Principles of Islamic jurisprudence, also known as ''uṣūl al-fiqh'' ( ar, أصول الفقه, lit. roots of fiqh), are traditional methodological principles used in Islamic jurisprudence (''fiqh'') for deriving the rulings of Islamic law (''s ...

) from the International Islamic University in

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

. Alwani is also the first female jurist to sit on the board of the Fiqh Council of North America. Alwani is an activist for the rights of Muslim women and children. She is active in continuing her father's thought and approach to minority fiqh. She specializes in Islamic jurisprudence,

Quranic studies Qur'anic studies is the academic study of the Quran, the religious scripture of Islam. Schools Behnam Sadeghi and Mohsen Goudarzi classify scholars of Quranic studies into four groups: traditionalists, revisionists, skeptics, and neo-traditiona ...

, the relationship between Islamic and civil law, and women and the family in Islam. Her sister is the Islamic scholar Ruqaia Al-Alwani. Hadia Mubarak identifies Zainab and Ruqaia as part of a growing body of female Muslim Qur'anic commentators.

Publications

Books

* ''Alusra fi Maqasid al sharia: Qira’ fi Qadaya al zawaj waltalaq fi Amrika (The Objectives of Sharia and the family: Critical Reading in Marriage and Divorce in American Muslim Family)''. Herndon, Virginia: The International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), 2013. * ''Muslim Women and Global Challenges: Seeking Change Through a Quranic Textual Approach and the Prophetic Model''. Institute of Objective Studies, 2012. * ''What Islam Says about Domestic Violence: A Guide for Helping Muslim Families'', 2008.

Articles

* "With Aisha in Mind: Reading Surat al-Nur through the Qur’an’s structural unity in ''Muslim Women and Gender Justice: Concepts, Sources, and Histories"'' edited by Dina El Omari, Juliane Hammer, and Mouhanad Khorchide. Routledge, 2020. * "Kafāla: The Qur'anic-Prophetic Model of Orphan Care" in ''Journal of Islamic Faith & Practice.'' 2020. * "Transformational Teaching: Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) as a Teacher and Murabbī" in ''Journal of Islamic Faith and Practice'', 2019. * "Al-wahda al-binaʾiyya li-l-Qurʾan: A Methodology for Understanding the Qur'an in the Modern Day" in ''Journal of Islamic Faith and Practice,'' 2018. * "Muslim Women as Religious Scholars: A Historical Survey" in ''Muslima Theology: The Voices of Muslim Women Theologians'' edited by Ednan Aslan,

Marcia Hermansen Marcia Hermansen is an American scholar of Islam originally from Canada. Hermansen is professor and director of Islamic World Studies at Loyola University Chicago. Biography Hermansen earned a PhD from the University of Chicago in Arabic and Isl ...

, and Elif Medeni. Peter Lang (Peter-Lang-Verlagsgruppe), 2013. * "The Qur'anic Model for Harmony in Family Relations" ''in Change From Within: Diverse Perspectives on Domestic Violence in Muslim Community'' edited by Maha Alkhateeb and Salma Elkadi Abugideirii. Peaceful Families, 2007.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alwani, Zainab Women scholars of Islam American people of Iraqi descent Howard University faculty Living people Sunni fiqh scholars American Islamic studies scholars Female Islamic religious leaders International Islamic University Malaysia alumni Proponents of Islamic feminism 1962 births Muslim scholars of Islamic studies