Women's Bodies in the Qur'an represents a seminal epistemological intervention into Islamic feminist theology, focusing specifically on the hermeneutics of the female form within the Qur'anic corpus. This treatise meticulously uncouples the divine text from centuries of monolithic patriarchal exegesis, which, the author argues, has historically mutated original linguistic semantics into mechanisms of somatic and socio-political control. Employing a rigorous, multi-disciplinary apparatus-synthesizing modern linguistics, psycholinguistics, and Sartrean existential phenomenology-Shuaib deconstructs central theological tenets that construct Muslim female identity.
Across eight complex chapters, the text enacts profound exegesis of contested terms, including Qawwam (Guardianship), Zinah (Adornment), Hijab (The Veil), Fitnah (Seduction), and 'Awrah (Nakedness). The overarching thesis posits that traditionalist interpretations have systematically enacted an objectifying reduction of women, prioritizing the somatic "exterior" (Being-in-itself) over the agentic, intellectual "interior" (Being-for-itself). By interrogating the historical and psychological anxieties underpinning classical commentaries, the work champions a liberating, counter-hegemonic hermeneutic. Women's Bodies in the Qur'an is indispensable for scholars of Critical Islamic Theory, Gender Studies, and Philosophy, redefining the boundaries of legitimate scriptural analysis.
Autorentext
Dr. Alia Mohammed Shuaib
Born in Kuwait, January 1964
Professor of Ethics, Department of Philosophy, Kuwait University
Earned her Master's degree in Ethics from the University of Birmingham, UK, with a thesis titled "The Ethics of Human Action," 1991.
Earned her PhD from the University of Birmingham, UK, with a dissertation titled "The Bodily Identity of Women in the Qur'an," 1994.
Books
A Woman Who Doesn't Marry the Sea (short story collection), 1989, Kuwait
Faceless (short story collection), 1991, UK
Spiders Mourning a Wound (poetry collection), Dar Al-Rabeean, 1993, Kuwait
The Rose's Path (poetry collection), 1997, Damascus
Portrait of Alienation (text), Kuwait, 2001
The Language of the Body (a study in the philosophy of ethics), Kuwait, 2001
And a new edition titled "The Sister of Temptation" by Batana Publishing House. Egypt
Teiba Novel, Second Edition, Nova Publishing House, 2014
Gazelle's Anxiety, Poetry, Al-Ain Publishing House, Cairo, 2015
The Jabriya Novel, Al-Yasmin Publishing House, Cairo, 2017