Course Syllabus

Muslim Feminism in Europe

See the course page in Absalon(Canvas at University of Copenhagen) for updates.

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University of Copenhagen, South Campus, Room KUA3 - 6B.0.22 | Thursdays 15:00 - 17:30  

Instructor: Jesper Petersen jesper.petersen@teol.ku.dk 

DIS Contact: Nya Oxfeldt Jensen (nyje@dis.dk)

Course Description

Within the last decade Islamic feminists have opened mosques with female and/or LGBTQ+ imams in most western European countries. Simultaneously, Muslim youth have organized in civil rights organizations that fight discrimination, racism, and Islamophobia, and every year Muslim authors publish their debut novel or poem collection while other Muslim artists produce Islamic pop-music – a genre that emerged at the turn of the millennium, when the first large Islamic pop record company took off.

Other young Muslim women isolate from society or find ways of living in piousness. A small minority of these women migrate to join terrorist organizations abroad. Although such women are often described as brainwashed, the process of radicalization is one in which women show a high degree of agency, and they often experience it as empowering – not unlike how women feel empowered when they take to the pulpit as imams. Indeed, some female imams are prior Salafis.

Although this course focuses on Islamic and Muslim feminisms (in the plural) it also cover women’s experiences with radical Islam, masculinities, LGBTQ+ Islam, and similar phenomena. The course consists of four modules. In module 1 we study Muslim migration to Denmark and explore Islam in Copenhagen through a field study in which students will do photo-journalism. In module 2, the focus is on female and LGBTQ+ imams in Europe, and in module 3 we read and listen to artistic productions by Muslim minority women in the form of novels, poetry and music. As part of this module students will be required to do a semi-structured interview with either a Muslim or a non-Muslim on private and public perceptions of Islam. Modul 4 focus on Muslim female piousness and the agency of women who join radical Islamic groups.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course not only have gained significant insights into Islamic feminism and Muslim youth culture in Europe and how new Islams and religious identities emerge. You will also have learned to do multimodal analysis by skills such as visual methodologies and how to analyze sound. Finally, the course will enable you to apply gender theory to real world situations.

Faculty

Associate professor and Sapere Aude research leader on the research project “Non-Muslim Islam” at Copenhagen University. Petersen has published multiple books on gender and Islam. His latest book on this topic “The Making of a Mosque with Female Imams” (open access) is an ethnographic account of how the first female led mosque emerged in Denmark.

Approach to Teaching and Expectations to Students

I teach a flipped classroom, which means that most classes constitute workshops, fieldwork, and similar activities that require significant student participation while any necessary lecturing is delivered as video material to watch before class. My philosophy is that students learn by doing and that our time together is best used by teacher-assisted student work. This requires that students arrive well prepared for classes, and that all students take an active part in the learning activities.

Evaluation and Grading

This class requires student participation, mainly in the form of group work and contributing to workshops. All such student to student activity contribute to the participation grade for the course. I reward quality of contribution over quantity of contribution. The evaluation criteria for each of the course’s three assignments are included in the instructions for these assignments.

Course literature

Abdel-Magied, Yasmin Midhat (2020): Life Was Easier Before I Was Woke. In Mariam Khan (ed.): It's Not About the Burqa. London: Picador. Pp. 79-91.

Abu-Lughod, Lila (2002): "Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others." American Anthropologist 104(3).

Ali, Ayan Hirsi (2004): The Caged Virgin: A Muslim Woman's Cry for Reason. London: Pocket Books. Pp. 141-150.

Ansari, Insiya (2012): Sex by Any Other Name. In Ayesha Mattu and Nura Maznavi (eds.): Love, InshAllah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women. New York, Soft Skull Press. P. 87-96.

Araújo, Cláudia (2019): "Women’s Voices in Diaspora: Hip Hop, Spoken Word, Islam and Web 2.0." Comunicação e Sociedade: 231-247.

Bakkar, Nafisa (2020): On the Representation of Muslims: Terms and Conditions Apply. In Mariam Khan (ed.): It's Not About the Burqa. London: Picador. Pp. 45-63.

Brinkmann, Svend and Steinar Kvale (2015): InterViews: Learning the Craft of Qualitative Research Interviewing. Los Angeles: SAGE. Pp. 3-10.

Eltahawy, Mona (2012): "Why Do They Hate Us?" Foreign Policy. 23 April.

Eltantawy, Nahed and Judy Isaksen (2020). "Mona Haydar: Blending Islamic and Hip-Hop Feminisms." Feminist Media Studies 20(6): 847-862.

Farris, Sara R. (2017). "In the Name of Women's Rights: The Rise of Femonationalism. Durham: Duke University Press. pp. 1-56.

Inge, Anabel (2017): The Making of a Salafi Muslim Woman. New York: Oxford University Press. Pp. 179-220.

Jaraba, Mahmoud (2019): The Practice of Khulʿ in Germany: Pragmatism versus Conservativism. Islamic Law and Society 26(1-2): 83-110.

Leeuwen, Theo van (2005). Introducing Social Semiotics. London: Routledge.

Mulvihill, N., Aghtaie, N., Matolcsi, A., & Hester, M. (2022). "UK Victim-Survivor Experiences of Intimate Partner Spiritual Abuse and Religious Coercive Control and Implications for Practice". Criminology & Criminal Justice, 23(5), 773-790.

Okin, Susan Moller (1999): "Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?" In Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women? edited by Susan Moller Okin. New Jersey, Princeton University Press.

Okoye, Ify (2012): A Prayer Answered. In Ayesha Mattu and Nura Maznavi (eds.): Love, InshAllah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women. New York, Soft Skull Press.

Otterbeck, J. (2021). "Finding the Object of Study: Islamic Studies in Practice." International Journal of Religion 2(1): 47-60.

Petersen, Jesper (2019): Pop-up Mosques, Social Media Adhan, and the Making of Female and LGBTQ-Inclusive Imams. Journal of Muslims in Europe 8(2): 178-196.

Petersen, Jesper (2019): Media and the Female Imam. Religions 10(3): 159-172.

Petersen, Jesper (2022). The Making of a Mosque with Female Imams: Serendipities in the Production of Danish Islams. Leiden: Brill. Pp. 30-37 and 66-142.

Petersen, Jesper and Anders Ackfeldt (2023). "The Case for Studying Non-Muslim Islams." Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 35(2-3): 241-259.

Petersen, Jesper (2025): The Islamic Juridical Vacuum: An Ethnographic Study of How Parallel Legal Institutions Emerged in Denmark. Leiden: Brill. Pp. 92-126 and 219-255.

Rose, Gillian (2016). Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to Researching with Visual Materials. Los Angeles: Sage. Pp. 24-47.

Schmidt, Garbi (2022). "What Is in a Word? An Exploration of Concept of ‘the Ghetto’ in Danish Media and Politics 1850–2018." Nordic Journal of Migration Research: 310-325.

 

Assignment	Percent
Photo Journalism	20%
Female Muslim Voices	30%
Semi-structured interview	30%
Participation	20%