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Reconciling Traditional Islamic Methods with Liberal Feminism in Tunisia: The Work of Mohamed Talbi
Abstract by Mrs. Kelly Al-Dakkak On Session 107  (Feminism, Piety, Leftism)

On Saturday, November 20 at 08:30 am

2010 Annual Meeting

Abstract
The paper will present and critically analyze the work of Mohamed Talbi, a Tunisian intellectual who addresses the message of modern liberal feminism within the space of classical Islamic methods and text. Talbi is representative of his generation of North African intellectuals, writers who benefited from both a traditional Islamic education and European degrees. As such, Talbi work represents an attempt to reconcile the liberal, secular ideas of his European education with traditional Islamic scholarship. Within the scope of this paper, I will focus on Talbi's application on the asbsb al-nuznl, the circumstances surrounding the revelation, to a number of Qur'anic verses governing personal status. I will specifically examine his conclusions on gender equality, wife beating, polygamy, sexual relations between spouses, and divorce, along with their implications in resolving the tension between secularist and religious ideas in modern Tunisia. My primary source material is Talbi's written work in its original Arabic and French, most importantly, the books, Ummat Al-Wasat, Iyysl Allyh, and Plaidoyer pour un islam moderne, as well as Talbi's journal submissions to Jeune Afrique. I will supplement this material with a series of interviews with Talbi in which I sought clarification on his methodology and intellectual influences. Based on this body of material, I will briefly trace his intellectual formation, map out the method by which he articulates his conclusions on personal status, explore the images and ideals that he presents of Muslim women, both historic and modern, and offer some preliminary criticism of his conclusions. My research represents the first comprehensive English language work on Talbi's ideas on women. Within the context of his writing on this subject, I will explore the implications of Talbi's thought for a generation of North Africans seeking to reconcile, compare, and evaluate liberal arguments on gender equality and traditional Islamic conclusions. While this project remains, by Talbi's own admission, incomplete, his work remains highly influential among intellectuals both within Tunisia and throughout North Africa. As a new generation of Islamic thinkers in the Maghreb critiques and challenges his work, it is my hope that this paper will help the observer to understand Talbi's ideas, their significance, structure, and weaknesses, and their place in the process of articulating a modern Islamic feminism in North Africa.
Discipline
Religious Studies/Theology
Geographic Area
Maghreb
Tunisia
Sub Area
19th-21st Centuries