Asma Barlas

Asma Barlas is a Pakistani-American academic and writer who specializes in international politics, women's studies, and Qur'anic hermeneutics. She focuses her research on how Muslims produce religious knowledge through patriarchal exegesis.

Early life and education

Barlas was born in Pakistan on 10 March 1950. She completed a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy and English literature at Kinnaird College. Following this, she earned a master's degree in journalism from the University of the Punjab.

Her academic journey continued in the United States. She obtained a master's degree and a Ph.D. in international studies from the University of Denver.

Career

Barlas entered the Pakistani foreign service in 1976 as one of the first women to be inducted into the profession. Her career faced a significant disruption in 1982 when she was dismissed under the orders of General Zia ul Haq. She served briefly as an assistant editor for the opposition newspaper The Muslim before she moved abroad. After receiving political asylum in the United States in 1983, she transitioned into academia.

In 1991, Barlas joined the politics department at Ithaca College. She acted as the founding director of the Center for the Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity for a period of 12 years. Her academic prestige led to her holding the Spinoza Chair in Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam in 2008.

Her research examines the relationship between British colonialism and Pakistani politics in her book Democracy, Nationalism and Communalism: The Colonial Legacy in South Asia, which was published in 1995. She also explores religious interpretation in her work "Believing Women" in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur'an. A revised edition of this book was released by University of Texas Press in February 2019.

Barlas provides specific definitions for her ideological positions. She rejects the label of "Islamic feminism" unless it describes a discourse of gender equality and social justice that derives its mandate from the Qur'an. Her writing includes the 2004 book Islam, Muslims, and the US: Essays on Religion and Politics. She also co-wrote Confronting Qur'anic Patriarchy with Raeburn Finn.

Her scholarly contributions extend to several essays published in academic collections. These include "Women's and Feminist Readings of the Qur'an" in the 2006 Cambridge Companion to the Qur'an and "Globalizing Equality: Muslim Women, Theology, and Feminisms" in the 2005 book On Shifting Ground. She also contributed "Amina Wadud's Hermeneutics of the Qur'an: Women Rereading Sacred Texts" to a 2004 Oxford University Press volume.