Fatima Seedat
Biographic Data
| ID | 5903060 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Fatima Seedat |
| GIVEN NAMES | Fatima |
| FAMILY NAME | Seedat |
| SIGNATURE | SEEDAT F |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Cape Town |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1099-1675 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 12 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 12 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Feminist Jurisprudence, Women Ulama and Iftā in Indonesia
Eight years ago a group of Indonesian women scholars who constituted themselves as ‘women ulama’ claimed the epistemic authority to pronounce on matters of Islamic law, and enacted it by issuing three collective fatwas. Six years later they repeated this process and issued four more fatwas. How should we read this development, in terms of the Muslim women’s movement, and the growth and development of Islamic law? Recognising the fatwa as the fund…
The Women’s Khutbah Book
The Women's Khutbah Book
Within the Muslim world, there is a dynamic and exciting social change afoot: a number of communities across the globe have embraced more gender-inclusive and representative ideas of religious authority. Within some spaces, women have taken on the role of preacher at the Jumu'ah (Friday) communal prayers. In other communities, women have been leading the prayers, officiating at marriage and funeral ceremonies, or participating on mosque boards or…
Trans Inheritance Roundtable
This Roundtable emerges through the first piece submitted for publication by Muneer Abdurouf. Given that the discussion on inheritance for trans individuals is still limited, and the importance of opening this area for discussion, with Abdurouf’s permission, the editors sought responses to the original piece. The responses received reflect a range of perspectives and methodological approaches including the philological and experiential, and South…
On Spiritual Subjects
This paper applies reading strategies adapted from feminist philosophy to the discursive construction of women as spiritual subjects in a Sufi narrative. The aim of this reading is first, to show the challenge women’s spiritual excellence presents to normative representations which privilege male spirituality, and then to illustrate the ways in which women’s spiritual excellence is negotiated in the text, at times challenging but generally reaffi…
Roundtable Discussion from the Annual Desmond Tutu Centre for Religion and Social Justice Public Lecture on Economies of Violence
In South Africa, the month of August is marked by two significant events in the country’s history: The anti-apartheid women’s march which hap-pened on 9 August 1956 and the Marikana massacre on 16 August 2012, in which 34 miners were killed by the police at the Lonmin mine. These events bring up for scrutiny the “Economies of Violence” that continue to sustain the indignity and the poverty which women, queer people, and marginalised black people …
For Feminist Killjoys between Love and Justice
First respondent for roundtable discussion from the Annual Desmond Tutu Centre for Religion and Social Justice Public Lecture on Economies of Violence
Gender Asymmetry and Mutual Sexual Relations in Online Legal Interpretation
As part of a larger research project which examines Muslim women’s sexual and reproductive health rights within the interlocutory space of online fatwas, this paper provides a glimpse into the co-construction, by muftis and petitioners, of an Islamic discourse of jurisprudence on sexuality in marriage. This paper argues that the discourse moves away from the dominant legal one of male sexual right and female responsibility to fulfil, towards an u…
Between Boundaries, towards Decolonial Possibilities in a Feminist Classroom
This paper theorises the teaching and learning of feminist approaches to the Bible and the Qurʾan in a Master’s course with a historically Christian focus. It draws on a critical review of an assessment task, and our pedagogical experiences as teachers, to consider how students made meaning within this decolonial pedagogical space, which explored feminist approaches to the two sacred texts. Our analysis shows, our work as teachers was to hold ont…
Beyond the Text
Beyond the Text: Between Islam and Feminism Fatima Seedat (bio) My contribution to this roundtable addresses the space between Islam and feminism and ventures to imagine what might be "beyond" the text to illustrate how, at this interstice, the Qurʾan may remain central to Muslim meaning making yet open to evolving understandings of justice. Caught under the weight of Margot Badran's now well-rehearsed approach to Muslim women's equality work und…
Women, religion and security
Formulating the call for papers for this special volume, the dear late Elaine Salo and I began an exchange that quickly gelled to reflect a common feminist analysis that expanded beyond the traditi
Sexual economies of war and sexual technologies of the body
This article analyses sexuality and subjugation in the context of Islamist militarism. It examines how the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Boko Haram style themselves upon narratives of Islamist militancy that appear to be historically authentic narratives of Muslim militarism read out of classical legal texts. The article argues instead that because ISIS and Boko Haram read these narratives through contemporary understandings of milit…
Islam, Feminism, and Islamic Feminism
This essay argues for maintaining a critical space between two intellectual paradigms that inform Muslim women’s anticolonial equality struggles in the neocolonial present, Islam and feminism. Seedat distinguishes between scholarly trends that preclude the convergence of Islam and feminism, that argue for a necessary convergence, and finally, those that make no argument for or against the convergence but “take Islam for granted” using feminist me…
When I slam and Feminism Converge
When I slam and Feminism Converge
Sexual economies of war and sexual technologies of the body
This article analyses sexuality and subjugation in the context of Islamist militarism. It examines how the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Boko Haram style themselves upon narratives of Islamist militancy that appear to be historically authentic narratives of Muslim militarism read out of classical legal texts. The article argues instead that because ISIS and Boko Haram read these narratives through contemporary understandings of milit…
Islam, Feminism, and Islamic Feminism
This essay argues for maintaining a critical space between two intellectual paradigms that inform Muslim women’s anticolonial equality struggles in the neocolonial present, Islam and feminism. Seedat distinguishes between scholarly trends that preclude the convergence of Islam and feminism, that argue for a necessary convergence, and finally, those that make no argument for or against the convergence but “take Islam for granted” using feminist me…
When I slam and Feminism Converge
Beyond the Text
Beyond the Text: Between Islam and Feminism Fatima Seedat (bio) My contribution to this roundtable addresses the space between Islam and feminism and ventures to imagine what might be "beyond" the text to illustrate how, at this interstice, the Qurʾan may remain central to Muslim meaning making yet open to evolving understandings of justice. Caught under the weight of Margot Badran's now well-rehearsed approach to Muslim women's equality work und…
Women, religion and security
Formulating the call for papers for this special volume, the dear late Elaine Salo and I began an exchange that quickly gelled to reflect a common feminist analysis that expanded beyond the traditi
Sexual economies of war and sexual technologies of the body
This article analyses sexuality and subjugation in the context of Islamist militarism. It examines how the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Boko Haram style themselves upon narratives of Islamist militancy that appear to be historically authentic narratives of Muslim militarism read out of classical legal texts. The article argues instead that because ISIS and Boko Haram read these narratives through contemporary understandings of milit…
Gender Asymmetry and Mutual Sexual Relations in Online Legal Interpretation
As part of a larger research project which examines Muslim women’s sexual and reproductive health rights within the interlocutory space of online fatwas, this paper provides a glimpse into the co-construction, by muftis and petitioners, of an Islamic discourse of jurisprudence on sexuality in marriage. This paper argues that the discourse moves away from the dominant legal one of male sexual right and female responsibility to fulfil, towards an u…
Between Boundaries, towards Decolonial Possibilities in a Feminist Classroom
This paper theorises the teaching and learning of feminist approaches to the Bible and the Qurʾan in a Master’s course with a historically Christian focus. It draws on a critical review of an assessment task, and our pedagogical experiences as teachers, to consider how students made meaning within this decolonial pedagogical space, which explored feminist approaches to the two sacred texts. Our analysis shows, our work as teachers was to hold ont…
Roundtable Discussion from the Annual Desmond Tutu Centre for Religion and Social Justice Public Lecture on Economies of Violence
In South Africa, the month of August is marked by two significant events in the country’s history: The anti-apartheid women’s march which hap-pened on 9 August 1956 and the Marikana massacre on 16 August 2012, in which 34 miners were killed by the police at the Lonmin mine. These events bring up for scrutiny the “Economies of Violence” that continue to sustain the indignity and the poverty which women, queer people, and marginalised black people …
For Feminist Killjoys between Love and Justice
First respondent for roundtable discussion from the Annual Desmond Tutu Centre for Religion and Social Justice Public Lecture on Economies of Violence
The Women’s Khutbah Book
The Women's Khutbah Book
Within the Muslim world, there is a dynamic and exciting social change afoot: a number of communities across the globe have embraced more gender-inclusive and representative ideas of religious authority. Within some spaces, women have taken on the role of preacher at the Jumu'ah (Friday) communal prayers. In other communities, women have been leading the prayers, officiating at marriage and funeral ceremonies, or participating on mosque boards or…
Trans Inheritance Roundtable
This Roundtable emerges through the first piece submitted for publication by Muneer Abdurouf. Given that the discussion on inheritance for trans individuals is still limited, and the importance of opening this area for discussion, with Abdurouf’s permission, the editors sought responses to the original piece. The responses received reflect a range of perspectives and methodological approaches including the philological and experiential, and South…
On Spiritual Subjects
This paper applies reading strategies adapted from feminist philosophy to the discursive construction of women as spiritual subjects in a Sufi narrative. The aim of this reading is first, to show the challenge women’s spiritual excellence presents to normative representations which privilege male spirituality, and then to illustrate the ways in which women’s spiritual excellence is negotiated in the text, at times challenging but generally reaffi…
Feminist Jurisprudence, Women Ulama and Iftā in Indonesia
Eight years ago a group of Indonesian women scholars who constituted themselves as ‘women ulama’ claimed the epistemic authority to pronounce on matters of Islamic law, and enacted it by issuing three collective fatwas. Six years later they repeated this process and issued four more fatwas. How should we read this development, in terms of the Muslim women’s movement, and the growth and development of Islamic law? Recognising the fatwa as the fund…
Gender Studies (11 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Political science (8 works) · Islamic Studies and History (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Islam (4 works) · Philosophy (4 works) · Economic Justice (3 works) · Feminism (3 works) · Gender Studies (3 works)