Lecture Series: Between Invisibility and Autonomy

Between Invisibility and Autonomy: Negotiating Gender Roles in Manuscript Cultures

Lecture 9/9

Female Contributions to Islamic Text Production and Circulation

Professor Dr Britta Frede (Universität Bayreuth)

This lecture looks at written testimonies of Islamic scholarship within contemporary Mauritania. Women scholars were active in local institutions of Islamic education since several centuries, and some are still running their own institutions teaching children and adult women in sīra, tajwīd, the Qur’ān, and further disciplines. A minority of these women are also engaged in producing own texts dealing with Islamic issues. This lecture will look at unpublished writings of the recently deceased Islamic scholar Aïchatou Mint Hamidoune (1946-2021) and parts of her manuscripts. These originally hand written manuscripts have been typed by her daughter who handed them over to me during a field research in 2014. The lecture will reflect about Aïchatou Mint Hamidoune's visions concerning Islamic womanhood, piety, and obstacles of female contributions to local scholarly culture. Further, it will situate her contribution to Islamic knowledge production within local social hegemonies and gender norms.