The Fatema Mernissi Lecture Series
The ACSS Annual Lecture: Celebrating prominent social scientists from the Arab region
The Annual Lecture is one of the main public events organized by the Arab Council for the Social Sciences (ACSS). It is an occasion where we welcome prominent social scientists from the Arab region to present their work and reflect on intellectual traditions in the region as well as histories and legacies of the past. The aim is to inform debates on contemporary issues and challenges facing the Arab region today.
The Annual Lecture is organized as a series of lectures which changes focus and theme every four years. It honors distinguished scholars who have made significant contributions to the social sciences and humanities in the Arab region. The lectures are open to the public and provide an opportunity for scholars, professionals and students to exchange ideas and dialogue.
The first set of lectures in the series (2015-2019) commemorated the work of the late historian Hanna Batatu. In this second set (2019-2022), the ACSS commemorates the late Moroccan writer and sociologist Fatema Mernissi, best known for her writings on women, feminism and Islamic thought. The inaugural lecture of the Fatema Mernissi series, taking place on 28 November 2019 in Beirut, Lebanon, coincides with the anniversary of the passing of the stellar feminist sociologist from Morocco.
Introductory Remarks: (Driss Ksikes)
Fatema Mernissi, a name worthy of a Chair
Driss Ksikes is one of the founders and coordinators of the Fatema Mernissi Chair at the Mohammed V University and the Institut des Hautes Etudes de Management (HEM) in Rabat, Morocco.
In his presentation, Ksikes sheds light on Mernissi’s personality, approach and lifestyle as well as her intellectual and interpersonal interactions. He focuses on how the Fatema Mernissi Chair honors and perpetuates her legacy, using it as an inspiration to generate novel ideas.
Ksikes is a professor of media, culture, and creative writing at HEM. He previously occupied the position of editor in chief at TelQuel. Starting in 2007, he became the director of the Economia, a research center for sociological, economic, and managerial sciences. He has published various articles and delivered lectures in international academic and media platforms. His book “Le métier d’intellectuel: dialogues avec quinze penseurs du Maroc” (The Intellectual Profession: Interviews with 15 Moroccan Thinkers), co-authored with Fadma Aït Mous (Member of the ACSS Board of Trustees), won the Prix Grand Atlas, Morocco’s most prestigious book prize.
Ksikes was described as “one of the most innovative writers in Morocco today” and named “one of the six best African playwrights” by the National Studio Theatre in London in 2012. He was appointed in 2016 by the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC) as a juror on living arts, and nominated twice for the title of best Francophone playwright (2015 and 2017). He was chosen by the Center for Art Writing at Northwestern University as a visiting resident writer in Chicago in the spring of 2017.
Ksikes has written a number of plays, including “Pas de mémoire, mémoire de pas” [Absence of Memory, Memory of Footsteps] (1998), “Le Saint des incertains” [The Saint of Uncertains] (2000), “Il” [He] (2008), “180 degrés” [180 Degrees] (2014), and “The Match” (2016). As a novelist, he published “Ma boîte noire” [My Blackbox] (2006), “L’homme descend du silence” [Man Descends from Silence] (2014) and “Au Détroit d’Averroès” [In the Straits of Averroes] (2017).
The Inaugural Lecture (Beirut, Lebanon 2019) / (Asmae Benadada)
Fatema Mernissi’s Work: Historical Approach and Field Research
Asmae Benadada is a Professor at the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Dhahir Al Mehraz, University of Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah, Fez, Morocco. She specializes in Women’s Studies and Political Sociology.
Benadada’s publications include “Women and Politics: Sociological Study of Women Partisan Sectors” (2008). She contributed to a number of edited works, including, “Le mouvement des droits humains des femmes au Maroc: Approche historique et archivistique” (2015). [The Women’s Human Rights movement in Morocco: A Historical and Archival Approach] (2015) She has also published a number of research papers in national and Arab journals specializing in women’s issues.
Benadada’s inaugural lecture focuses on the audacity and critical thinking characterizing the work of Fatema Mernissi, as she was among the pioneers who challenged the secrecy and silence surrounding sensitive and taboo issues in the Arab-Islamic culture. These can be summarized by the trinity of gender, religion, and politics, and the position of women within this trinity. With great intellectual courage and academic prowess, Mernissi addressed these issues, transforming them into subjects worthy of research, discussion, analysis, and critique. She utilized both her academic background and women’s rights’ experiences to deconstruct patriarchy in Arab-Islamic culture. Fatema Mernissi noted from the outset that the social and daily problems of women cannot be understood without a deconstructive and critical understanding of the historical, intellectual and religious foundations and cultural backgrounds within which patriarchy and its imaginary are anchored. Nor could these problems be understood without mapping the manifestations of women’s marginalization and inferiority.
In her lecture, Benadada points out that Mernissi adopted two methodological approaches in her writings. She used an analytical historical approach in order to understand the status of women in Islamic heritage and jurisprudence and attempt to find answers to modern questions. Such books include “The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Islam” (1987), “The Forgotten Queens of Islam” (1990), “Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood” (1996), and “Scheherazade Goes West: Different Cultures, Different Harems” (2001).
The second approach relied on field and sociological research to explore the everyday life of a large number of Moroccan women and the challenges they faced. Such studies and books include “Le prolétariat féminin au Maroc” [The Female Proletariat in Morocco] (1981), “Le Maroc raconté par ses femmes” [Morocco Narrated by its Women] (1983), Women of the Gharb (1984), “Les Ait débrouille: Haut Atlas” [The Ait débrouille of the High Atlas] (2003), “Les Sindbads marocains: Voyage dans le Maroc civique” [Moroccan Sinbad, Travel in Civic Morocco] (2004).
In this lecture, Benadada addresses both methodological approaches while focusing on Mernissi’s field research and projects that focused on Moroccan women in their diverse contexts as workers, peasants, weavers and employees. She also addresses Mernissi’s study of women and youth in civil society associations. Finally, the lecture touches on the research Mernissi was developing on how the digital revolution and social networking sites have affected media and religious discourse, a project that did not see the light as she passed away before its completion.
Fatema Mernissi: Sociologist and Feminist Activist: A Lifetime in a Few Lines
Fatema Mernissi was an extraordinary woman. Having spent more than half of her life writing and analyzing Islam and women as well as fighting for gender equality, it should come as no surprise that Mernissi was included in The Guardian’s 2011 global list of “Top 100 Women: Activists and Campaigners.”
Fatema Mernissi was born in Fez, Morocco, in 1940. She was a writer, sociologist, and feminist activist whose books reached a broad regional and international audience and were translated to many languages. Mernissi studied political science at Sorbonne University in France before moving to Brandeis University in the United States where she received her doctorate in sociology in 1973 after completing her dissertation: “Beyond the Veil: Sex as Social Engineering”. In the 1980s she became a lecturer at the Mohammed V University in Rabat.
Mernissi was a prolific writer, publishing books that received international acclaim, including “Islam and Democracy: Fear of the Modern World”; “The Veil and the Male Elite; A Feminist Interpretation of Islam”; “Scheherazade Goes West: Different Cultures, Different Harems”; “Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood”, etc.
In addition to her academic work, Mernissi was known for her activism for women’s rights. She conducted interviews in the late 1970s and 1980s to map prevailing attitudes towards women and work. She did sociological research for UNESCO and the ILO. Mernissi published a number of articles and papers that had major impact within and beyond her homeland, in the Arab region and the whole world. However, this success was preceded by a ban on her writings in some Arab countries due to her progressive ideas and the audacity of her discourses. This ban led her to publish her first book “Woman in the Muslim Unconscious” (1982) in France under the pseudonym “Fatna Ait El Sabbah.” The ban was eventually lifted and she was able to publish under her real name. She wrote “The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Islam”, which was received with both praise and criticism.
In his article “Fatema Mernissi… The wings of women’s ‘reality’ with which she flew to the dream”, the journalist Karim El Hani said “Fatema Mernissi is a Moroccan woman who dedicated her life to sociology and women’s rights. She weaved together her understanding of reality and tradition to demonstrate how patriarchy limits women’s effective engagement in Arab and Muslim societies.” (Marayana 5 September 2019)
Mernissi received a number of international honors and awards, most notably the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature in 2003, and the Dutch Erasmus Prize which was awarded at a conference organized in 2004 under the theme of “Religion and Modernity.” In 2015, after her death, a new Chair at the Mohammed V University in Rabat was named after her.
Fatema Mernissi passed away on November 30, 2015, leaving behind a great legacy and a greater intellectual wealth, which would immortalize her as one of the eminent thinkers and writers of the Maghreb and the Arab region.
