[MoonStar]

Originally Posted by farah

salaam ladies!

my msa's considering having a speaker named "gwendolyn simmons" come and speak about women in islam. i haven't heard of her and no one else has, except for this one non-muslim girl in our msa. has anyone heard of her or anything about her? particularly her stance on women in islam? i've googled a bit and the results don't seem that promising...

any help would be greatly apprecited. jazakAllah khair

I haven't heard of her before, just googled her right now, she seems really interesting though

[Sugarberry]

Originally Posted by farah

salaam ladies!

my msa's considering having a speaker named "gwendolyn simmons" come and speak about women in islam. i haven't heard of her and no one else has, except for this one non-muslim girl in our msa. has anyone heard of her or anything about her? particularly her stance on women in islam? i've googled a bit and the results don't seem that promising...

any help would be greatly apprecited. jazakAllah khair

What kind of MSA would get a speaker that no ones heard of? ...seriously did the people in charge even peek at her credentials?

Originally Posted by The Girl

like my new avatar?

your avatars cool!

[farah]

Originally Posted by Sugarberry

What kind of MSA would get a speaker that no ones heard of? ...seriously did the people in charge even peek at her credentials?

remember when you didn't read the post? one of the girls had heard of her, but the rest of us haven't, so we're trying to look more into her credentials and find out more about her BEFORE we get her. thanks.

[Sugarberry]

Originally Posted by farah

remember when you didn't read the post? one of the girls had heard of her, but the rest of us haven't, so we're trying to look more into her credentials and find out more about her BEFORE we get her. thanks.

hahahah dont get all defensive is just msa

[farah]

Originally Posted by Sugarberry

hahahah dont get all defensive is just msa

don't get all defensive, it's just reading comprehension

[Purple_alien]

Originally Posted by farah

salaam ladies!

my msa's considering having a speaker named "gwendolyn simmons" come and speak about women in islam. i haven't heard of her and no one else has, except for this one non-muslim girl in our msa. has anyone heard of her or anything about her? particularly her stance on women in islam? i've googled a bit and the results don't seem that promising...

any help would be greatly apprecited. jazakAllah khair

I just searched her. She is an Assistant professor of religion at the University of Florida. She spent two years living and conducting dissertation research in the Middle East countries of Jordan, Egypt, Palestine, and Syria.
Oh, and her middle name is Zohara, if that makes you feel better
Dr. Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons Biography - NHAP

[farah]

Originally Posted by Purple_alien

I just searched her. She is an Assistant professor of religion at the University of Florida. She spent two years living and conducting dissertation research in the Middle East countries of Jordan, Egypt, Palestine, and Syria.
Oh, and her middle name is Zohara, if that makes you feel better
Dr. Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons Biography - NHAP

Originally Posted by MoonStar

I haven't heard of her before, just googled her right now, she seems really interesting though

thanks for the input guys! so here's my concern: i know she's muslim, but there's plenty of muslim women (yes, even speakers) who do NOT represent me (and a lot of women i know) as a muslim woman.

i spent a bit of time googling her yesterday, looking specifically for her stance on women in islam. i can't find lectures or essays or anything, but her biography listed her as studying sufism under a renowned sufi "saint" (i'm guessing that's university of florida's way of saying "scholar"). i can deal with that.

then i found her in a book -- "progressive muslims" by omid safi -- alongside amina wadud. a review of the book from a blog reads:

"Simmons writes from a radical feminist Sufi perspective and also relates her views to her experiences as part of the civil rights movement in the late 1960s. One thing that may turn readers off is how Simmons apparently compares the experience of Muslim women everywhere to the Jim Crow South - even Muslim women in America. By failing to acknowledge the great variety and diversity of Muslim women's experience, she risks trivializing some very serious problems, such as in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, and certain other countries."

hm. examining this further in google, i get:

Amira el-Azhary Sonbol and Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons emphasized that while the Qur’an came from God, it has traditionally been interpreted by men who have ignored the female experience. All interpretation, they asserted, is grounded in human experience, and patriarchal interpretations have resulted in discrimination against and the subjugation of women. While Simmons argued for new interpretations of the Qur’an derived from the international ideals of human rights, Sonbal maintained that the Qur’an itself supplies the basis for equal treatment of women.

...i'm not sure i can jive with that. i'm not dumb, i know what i'm looking at here are snippets from random google documents, but the more i look into it, the more hesitant i am. i'm basically looking for anyone who knows of this women and can prove me wrong. our exec board meeting on sunday might be to decide whether or not we want to bring her

------------

and if anyone DOESN'T know this chick, is there anyone else they'd recommend to bring to speak on women in islam?

[nutella]

For a women in islam lecture, i would recommend Dr. Zainab Alwani. We invited her a few months ago to lead a weekend workshop on the fiqh of marriage, but the session i enjoyed the most with her was the women's Q&A. I love the adab she uses to address everyone's questions, she's such a genuinely nice person. I'm attaching her bio, and i can send you her contact info as well if you'd like.

Zainab Alwani, M.A. is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Islamic Studies at International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) in the area of Fiqh and Usul al Fiqh. She teaches the Arabic language and culture and Introduction to Islam at Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC) and at The School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. She has developed courses in Arabic Studies examining the link between Islamic Philosophy, language and culture at these institutions. Zainab Alwani also holds a Master in Islamic Studies from The Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences and has studied Shariah and Law at Omdurman Islamic University in Sudan. She is a member of the Fiqh Council of North America. She has published What Islam Says About Domestic Violence and is in the process of publishing the The Role of Women in Fiqhi Literature. She teaches courses at Cordoba University of Islamic Science in VA on Hadith Literature and Women in Islam.





Also, duas for my family would be much appreciated.

[farah]

Originally Posted by nutella

For a women in islam lecture, i would recommend Dr. Zainab Alwani. We invited her a few months ago to lead a weekend workshop on the fiqh of marriage, but the session i enjoyed the most with her was the women's Q&A. I love the adab she uses to address everyone's questions, she's such a genuinely nice person. I'm attaching her bio, and i can send you her contact info as well if you'd like.

Zainab Alwani, M.A. is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Islamic Studies at International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) in the area of Fiqh and Usul al Fiqh. She teaches the Arabic language and culture and Introduction to Islam at Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC) and at The School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. She has developed courses in Arabic Studies examining the link between Islamic Philosophy, language and culture at these institutions. Zainab Alwani also holds a Master in Islamic Studies from The Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences and has studied Shariah and Law at Omdurman Islamic University in Sudan. She is a member of the Fiqh Council of North America. She has published What Islam Says About Domestic Violence and is in the process of publishing the The Role of Women in Fiqhi Literature. She teaches courses at Cordoba University of Islamic Science in VA on Hadith Literature and Women in Islam.

jazakAllah khair!! the girl in our msa who wanted to bring dr. simmons really wanted her to touch upon domestic violence in islam, so alwani seems like an excellent alternative. do you know about her honorarium at all?

Also, duas for my family would be much appreciated.

inshaAllah may Allah swt answer their duas, ease their hardships and grant them success and happiness in this life and the next

[nooni]

Originally Posted by farah

thanks for the input, plops.

hey hey hey!!!! plops is a nooni wannabe ok

[Timbit]

Gwendolyn is a beautiful name.

Soooo.... back to female personal hygiene.
Any of you use the Keeper, MoonCup or DivaCup?

THE KEEPER® THE MOON CUP® Manufacturer, Home Office, Distribution Headquarters
The DivaCup™

[ABCDGIRL]

Originally Posted by Timbit

Gwendolyn is a beautiful name.

Soooo.... back to female personal hygiene.
Any of you use the Keeper, MoonCup or DivaCup?

THE KEEPER® THE MOON CUP® Manufacturer, Home Office, Distribution Headquarters
The DivaCup™

oh.my ...god.

[Caramel_Candy]

Originally Posted by Timbit

Gwendolyn is a beautiful name.

Soooo.... back to female personal hygiene.
Any of you use the Keeper, MoonCup or DivaCup?

THE KEEPER® THE MOON CUP® Manufacturer, Home Office, Distribution Headquarters
The DivaCup™

WTH? I already have a plunger in my bathroom. No thanks.

[hijabihoodlum]