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Fatema Mernissi (; 27 September 1940 – 30 November 2015) was a Moroccan feminist writer and sociologist.
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 identity and Sexual identity, 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.
As an Islamic feminism, Mernissi was largely concerned with Islam and women's roles, analyzing the historical development of Islamic thought and its modern manifestations. Through a detailed investigation of the nature of the succession to Muhammad, she cast doubt on the validity of some of the hadith (sayings and traditions attributed to him), and therefore the subordination of women that she sees in Islam, but not necessarily in the Qur'an.
In 1984, she contributed the text "The merchant's daughter and the son of the sultan" to the anthology , edited by Robin Morgan. Her most famous book as an Islamic feminist, The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Women's Rights in Islam, is a quasi-historical study of the role of the wives of Muhammad. It was first published in French in 1987 and translated into English in 1991. The book was subsequently banned in Morocco, Iran, and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf.
As a sociologist, Mernissi mainly undertook field work in Morocco. On several occasions in the late 1970s and early 1980s, she conducted interviews in order to map prevailing attitudes to women and their work. She did sociological research for UNESCO and ILO as well as for the Moroccan government. In the same period, Mernissi contributed articles to periodicals and other publications on women in Morocco and women and Islam from a contemporary as well as from a historical perspective.
Her work has been cited as an inspiration by other Muslim feminists, such as those who founded Musawah and others. For Doing Daily Battle: Interviews with Moroccan Women (1991), she interviewed peasant women, women labourers, clairvoyants and maidservants. In 1994, Mernissi published a fictional memoir, (in the US, the book was originally titled The Harem Within: Tales of a Moroccan Girlhood, and is still known by that title in the UK).
A recurring topic in her writings is the fictional character Scheherazade of Arabian Nights. Her article, The Satellite, the Prince, and Scheherazade: The Rise of Women as Communicators in Digital Islam explores cases in which women take part in online media, while Digital Scheherazades in the Arab World covers the topics of online activities shifting cultural ways. In these essays, she mentions how technology is quickly spreading – one of the main sources being the World Wide Web – and analyses the roles and contributions of women in this movement.
She wrote extensively about life within harems, gender, and public and private spheres. Size 6: The Western Women’s Harem, is an essay from her book, Scheherazade Goes West: Different Cultures, Different Harems that discusses the repression and pressures women in different societies face merely based on their physical appearance. Whether she analyzes women in Moroccan society or in the West, she claims that they must live up to stereotypical, culturally imposed standards, such as dress sizes. Mernissi compares the clothing size 6 to harems and states that these Western practices isolate and mistreat 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.Mernissi, F. (1975). Beyond the Veil: Male -Female Dynamics in a. Modern Muslim Society. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Schenkman Publishing Company. 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.
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.
Furthermore, Mernissi analyzes the role of the state in gender roles as well as the outcome of a state that ultimately supports inequality.Mernissi, 1996 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.
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.
In 2003, Mernissi was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award, along with Susan Sontag. Mernissi's acceptance speech, The Cowboy or Sinbad?, covered the topic of globalization, and was recognized for her pensive take, considering both the issue and effects of culture. In 2004, she was awarded the Erasmus Prize, alongside Sadik Al-Asm and Abdolkarim Soroush. For this award, she was recognized for her sociocultural impact, since it was dedicated to "Religion and Modernity". In 2017, The Middle East Studies Association created the Fatema Mernissi Book Award to "recognize outstanding scholarship in studies of gender, sexuality, and women’s lived experience".
Mernissi's legacy can be greatly attributed to her scholarly and literary contributions to the early Islamic feminist movement. Mernissi tackled issues such as Eurocentrism, intersectionality, transnationalism and global feminism in her publications and public lectures. The New York Times quoted her in an obituary:
"Not only have the sacred texts always been manipulated, but manipulation of them is a structural characteristic of the practice of power in Muslim societies.” ( The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Women’s Rights in Islam)
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