Fatema Mernissi

Fatema Mernissi studied at Sorbonne and Brandeis University. The recorded working language is French, Arabic and English. The field of work recorded is essay, gender studies and sociology. Employment is recorded with Mohammed V University. Positions recorded include professor. Distinctions recorded are Princess of Asturias Literary Prize and Erasmus Prize.

Fatema Mernissi was born on 27 September 1940 in Fez, Morocco. She grew up in the harem of her affluent paternal grandmother along with various female kin and servants. She received her primary education in a school established by the nationalist movement, and secondary level education in an all-girls school funded by the French protectorate. She started her studies in political science at Mohammed V University in 1959. She then obtained scholarships to pursue studies in sociology, leading her to the Sorbonne in 1966, then she transferred to Brandeis University in 1970, where she gained her doctorate in 1973. She returned to work at the Mohammed V University in Rabat and taught at the Faculté des Lettres between 1974 and 1981 on subjects such as methodology, family sociology and psychosociology. Further, she was a research scholar at the University Institute for Scientific Research at the same university. Mernissi's Beyond the Veil: Male-Female Dynamics in Muslim Society was written for her PhD thesis and later published as a book which recognizes the power of Muslim women in relation to the Islamic faith. Mernissi is known for her sociopolitical approaches towards discussing gender and sexual identities, specifically those in Morocco and other Muslim countries. She is regarded as an influential feminist figure, as she was a renowned public speaker, scholar, teacher, writer, and sociologist. Mernissi died in Rabat on 30 November 2015.

In 1975, Fatima Mernissi's first book, Beyond the Veil, was published, and it was considered revolutionary. Mernissi broke down the ethnocentric stereotypes Western society had developed towards Islam, especially Muslim women. She distinguished Muslim women from the homogenized group of ‘third-world women’ that Western feminism had created. Mernissi also fought to overcome Western assumptions that Muslim women were helpless victims of both their religion and the men of their religion. Western stereotypes ostracized Muslim men who did not fit the white, masculine, hegemonic mold dominating the first world society, developing racist ideas towards a religion that was believed to oppress women. However, Mernissi pointed out that Muslim women were not victims of their religious practices any more than Western women were victims of the patriarchy; both groups of women were oppressed by specific social institutions within a religion or society created to profit from the marginalization of others. Furthermore, Mernissi explained that Western women were veiled, just as Muslim women were, yet Western veils were much more discreet. She argued that youth and beauty veiled Western women, and once a woman no longer had these, she was hardly recognized by society. Mernissi broke down the ethnocentric approach Western Feminism had been utilizing and wrote to bring more clarity to the diversity necessary within the global Feminine movement. Mernissi's legacy is revolutionary because she created a space within an initially predominantly Western movement that allowed Muslim women to participate without compromising their religious practices. Mernissi's work highlighted how Western feminism could be detrimental to the empowerment of women around the globe if it lacked an intersectional approach to women's issues.

In the book The Forgotten Queens of Islam, Fatima Mernissi uses an intersectional approach to understand the positions of women throughout early Islamic history through social and political identities that created modes of discrimination. Her aim was to bring to light the significant contributions that women had made throughout early Islamic history and debunk the misconceptions about the absence of women as political and authoritative figures. She does this by exploring the leadership roles that women were involved in throughout Islamic history and alters the way women are portrayed in historiographies. She claims that women held powerful political positions despite religious titles that were given to men. This is exemplified through the many historical accounts that she provides about fifteen women and the active roles that they played in pre-modern Islam politics. For instance, the role that female slaves played in leading slave revolts against religious rulers without the use of violence (Mernissi, 1994). Moreover, Mernissi distinguishes between “Political Islam,” the period where radical change occurred and women's roles were disregarded or forgotten, and “Rislala Islam,” where women's lives were transformed (Mernissi, 1994). She was fundamental in contributing to the overall academic literature on women's visibility in Islamic history outside of their traditional roles by highlighting their involvement in politics, religion, and cultural change.

In the book Women's Rebellion & Islamic Memory, Fatima Mernissi analyzes the role of women in relation to the world of contemporary Islam. In her work, she explores the idea of sexual identity and gender roles in the Islamic world and helps to redefine the narrative surrounding it. Mernissi discusses some of the most prominent issues to do with the status of Muslim women, such as the masking of women's contribution to the economies of Arab states (Mernissi, 1996). Furthermore, Mernissi delves into different demographic, including education and literacy. She uses this to help explain the importance of these factors not only for the empowerment of women in Islam, but also for their health (Mernissi, 1996). Furthermore, Mernissi analyzes the role of the state in gender roles as well as the outcome of a state that ultimately supports inequality. She ultimately argues that the freedom from these controlling traditions and expectations of women is the only way for the Arab world to develop. Mernissi's work is extremely influential in Islamic feminism, intersectionality, and global feminism, by focusing on issues surrounding Muslim women in the Arab world. This book, in particular, was able to bring light to specific issues that women deal with in the Islamic world, such as issues of sexual identity and gender roles, and the effects these can have on women's empowerment and health.

In her book, Islam and Democracy: Fear of the Modern World, Fatima Mernissi employs a transnational approach to analyse the socio-political context of the Arab-Islamic world shortly after the Gulf war. She debates whether the established fundamentalism dominating the Middle East could ever be compatible with the democratic processes used in Western societies. Mernissi raises questions around the uncertainty Muslims feel towards a form of government that is “unislamic” and may compromise their Islamic way of life, including morals and values, such as modesty. Moreover, she explores issues such as the fear of the Islamic religion, democracy, the United Nations Charter, freedom of thought and individualism (Mernissi, 2002). For instance, she looked at how fundamentalism controlled what a woman would be able to wear, so a democratic society that freed women to dress as they pleased could appear threatening to a hyper-masculine culture. She contests that a living democracy should allow for the legal and constitutional ability to disagree with the state. Mernissi then suggests ways in which progressive Muslims, including feminists, who choose to advocate for democracy and resist fundamentalism should draw from the same sacred texts as those who seek to oppress them, in order to prove that Islam is not fundamentally against women.

1989: Doing Daily Battle: Interviews with Moroccan Women, translated by Mary Jo Lakeland. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.