Her quiet revolution:Islamist women versus Islamist men

[Xxxx Xxxxx Xxxxxx <xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Vol 2, Iss 18 29 OCTOBER to 11 NOVEMBER 1999, Cairo Times,
http://www.cairotimes.com/

Her quiet revolution by Sarwat Ahmed

"I will try my best to prove that women are not less than men, that they are
able to fill the same roles as men and just as effectively." Dr. Souad Salah
wants to be a mufti" .

"There is little about Dr. Souad Salah that would make her seem threatening to
the religious and political status quo. A matronly, unassuming figure, who
sometimes allows her husband not only to speak for her but to correct her
opinions, the 52-year-old Al Azhar
University theology professor is not the picture of an ardent feminist about to
crash through the barriers between men and women in the religious-intellectual
field. Which is accurate--she isn't. An ardent feminist, that is."

"If patience truly is a virtue, then Salah must be one of the most virtuous 
women walking the streets of Cairo. It took her ten years to voice an idea that
had been germinating in her mind--Salah wants to be a mufti with the power to
officially give fatwas on women's issues, and with the  blessing of the Dar Al
Iftaa' (the office of the Mufti). Now she's been
quietly waiting another five months to receive the Grand Mufti's approval. "

--

Xxxx Xxxxx Xxxxxx
PhD Student
Department of Political Science
SUNY at Albany
Nelson A. Rockefeller College
135 Western Ave.; Milne 102
Albany, NY 12222