Leila Ahmed

Leila Ahmed (kwa Kiarabu لیلى أحمد ; alizaliwa mjini Kairo mwaka 1940) ni mtaalamu wa utafiti wa hali ya wanawake katika dini kutoka Misri aliyehamia Marekani. Anafundisha kwenye Chuo Kikuu cha Harvard.

Asili yake 
Alizaliwa katika familia ya tabaka la juu mjini Kairo kabla ya uhuru wa nchi. Baba alikuwa Mmisri na mama Mturuki. Hivyo alilelewa katika dini ya Uislamu kwa upande mmoja na katika mazingira yenye mawazo huria jinsi ilivyokuwa katika familia nyingi za tabaka la juu za Misri kabla ya mapinduzi ya kijeshi ya mwaka 1952.

Baada ya shule alipokewa kwenye Chuo Kikuu cha Cambridge, Uingereza alipopata digrii ya bachelor, ya uzamili ("masters") na ya uzamifu (PhD) mwaka 1978.. Tasnifu yake aliiandika juu ya Edward William Lane, mtaalamu Mwingereza wa utamaduni na nchi za Asia ya Magharibi wa karne ya 19.

Kutoka hapo mwaka 1981 alihamia Marekani alipopewa nafasi ya profesa ya masomo ya utafiti wa hali ya wanawake na utamaduni wa Mashariki ya Kati kwenye Chuo kikuu cha Massachusetts Amherst. 

Mwaka 1999 alikuwa profesa wa utafiti wa hali ya wanawake katika dini huko Harvard.

Wanawake na Jinsia katika Uislamu
Kitabu chake mashuhuri zaidi ni utafiti kuhusu "Wanawake na Jinsia katika Uislamu" aliotoa mwaka 1992. Hapo alitoa hoja kuwa hali duni ya wanawake katika nchi za Mashariki ya Kati haitokani na dini yenyewe ya Uislamu bali na namna watu wanaelewa ujumbe wa dini hiyo kulingana na kanuni za utamaduni wao. Alionyesha jinsi gani katika mwanzo wa Uislamu kulikuwa na ujumbe wa kimaadili ya dini uliofundisha usawa wa jinsia zote mbili. 

Ujumbe huu ulikuwa tofauti na kanuni za sharia ambazo ziliona wanawake chini ya wanaume katika mambo ya familia, kama vile mfumo wa wake wengi na upendeleo kwa wanaume katika kanuni za talaka. Alionyesha utafiti wake kuhusu uhusiano wa jinsia katika Mashariki ya Kati kabla na baada ya Mtume Mohammad akafikia hitimisho kuwa jamii zilikuwa tayari na mifumo ya kuwapa wanaume haki zaidi na mara nyingi hali ya wanawake ilikuwa duni kuliko ilivyokuwa baadaye chini ya sharia ya Kiislamu. Kwa jumla jamii za Uarabuni wakati ule zilikuwa katika mchakato wa kuhamia jamii za kufuta urithi wa baba kutoka hali ya awali ambako zilifuata urithi wa mama. Mchakato huu uliharakishwa na uenezaji wa Uislamu.

Katika karne zilizofuata, hasa wakati wa makhalifa wa Abbasiya, ujumbe wa kimaadili wa usawa wa jinsia mbili ulidhoofishwa na kipaumbele cha wanaume kiliimarishwa. Lakini muda wote kulikuwa na mikondo tofauti kama Wasufi na wengine walioendelea kukubali usawa wa wanawake.

Bibliografia

Vitabu
 Edward W. Lane: A study of his life and works and of British ideas of the Middle East in the Nineteenth century. London: Longman (1978 - tasnifu ya PhD)
 "A Traditional Ceremony in an Islamic Milieu in Malaysia", in Muslim Women (1984)
 “Between Two Worlds: The Formation of a Turn-of-the-Century Egyptian Feminist”, in Life/Lines: Theorizing Women’s Autobiography (1988)
 “Arab Women: 1995”, in The Next Arab Decade: Alternative Futures (1988)
 “Feminism and Cross-Cultural Inquiry: The terms of discourse in Islam" In Coming to Terms: Feminism, Theory and Politics. Ed. Elizabeth Weed. New York: Routledge (1989)
 Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate. New Haven: Yale University Press (1992)
 A Border Passage: From Cairo to America—A Woman's Journey. New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux (1999)
 A Quiet Revolution: The Veil's Resurgence, from the Middle East to America. New Haven. Yale University Press (2011)

Makala
 “Women in the rise of Islam.” The new Voices of Islam : Rethinking Politics and Modernity : a Reader. Ed. Mehran Kamrava. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2006. 177-200.
 “The Discourse of the Veil.” Post Colonialisms: an Anthology of Cultural Theory and Criticism. Ed. Gaurav Desai and Supriya Nair. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2005. 315-338.
 “The Veil Debate Again: a View from America in the Early Twenty-first Century”. On Shifting Ground: Muslim Women in the Global Era. Ed. Fereshteh Nourale-Simone. New York: Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2005.
 “Gender and literacy in Islam.” Nothing Sacred: Women Respond to Religious Fundamentalism and Terror. Ed. Betsy Reed. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press/Nation Books, 2002.
 “The Women of Islam”. Transition 83 (2000): 78-97.
 “Early Islam and the position of Women: the problem of interpretation.” Women in Middle Eastern History: Shifting Boundaries in Sex and Gender. Ed. Nikki R. Keddie, Beth Baron. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993.
 “Arab Culture and Writing Woman’s Bodies.” Gender Issues 9.1 (March 1, 1989): 41-55.
 “Women and the Advent of Islam.” Signs 11.4 (Summer, 1986): 665-691.
 “Feminism and Feminist Movements in the Middle East, a Preliminary Exploration: Turkey, Egypt, Algeria, People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen.” Women and Islam. Ed. Ellen Skinner. Virginia: Pergamon Press: 1982. 153.
 “Western Ethnocentrism and Perceptions of the Harem.” Feminist Studies 8.3 (Autumn, 1982): 521-534.
 Ahmed, Leila, Krishna Ahooja-Patel, Charlotte Bunch, Nilufer Cagatay, Ursula Funk, Dafna N. Izraeli, Margaret McIntosh, Helen I. Safa, and Aline K. Wong. “Comments on Tinker’s ‘A Feminist view of Copenhagen”. Signs 6.4 (Summer, 1981): 771-790.
 “Encounter with American Feminism: A Muslim Woman’s View of Two Conferences”. Women’s Studies Newsletter 8.3 (Summer, 1980): 7-9.

Filamu
 Ahmed alikuwa mshauri wa filamu Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet (2002)

Marejeo

Viungo vya Nje 
Ahmed's faculty profile at Harvard Divinity School
Interview with Ahmed ("Muslim Women and Other Misunderstandings)  at On Being (radio show) in December 7, 2006
Professor Leila Ahmed, Ph.D., speaks in the Distinguished Lecture Series March 22, 2010
A Border Passage: From Cairo to America -- A Woman's Journey, Leila Ahmed, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999. 
Profile of Leila Ahmed  By Julia Lieblich, The Associated Press, August 12, 1999

Waliozaliwa 1940
Watu walio hai
Waandishi wa Misri
Wataalamu wa Marekani
Wanawake wa Misri