First woman to serve on Fiqh Council of North America
Parent
Taha Jabir Alawani
Relatives
Ruqaia Al-Alwani
Zainab Alwani is an American activist and Islamic scholar. She is Founding Director and Associate Professor of Islamic Studies at
Howard University School of Divinity.[1]
Biography
Zainab Alwani was born in
Baghdad, Iraq in 1962.[2][3] She is the daughter of
Taha Jabir Alalwani.[4] Alwani and her family were forced to flee Iraq when she was 7. The family went to Egypt and later Saudi Arabia.[3]
Alwani is an activist for the rights of Muslim women and children.[2] She is active in continuing her father's thought and approach to minority fiqh.[9] She specializes in
Islamic jurisprudence,
Quranic studies, the relationship between Islamic and civil law, and women and the family in
Islam.[1][3][9] Her sister is the Islamic scholar
Ruqaia Al-Alwani.[10]Hadia Mubarak identifies Zainab and Ruqaia as part of a growing body of female Muslim Qur'anic commentators.[11]
Publications
Books
Alusra fi Maqasid al sharia: Qira’ fi Qadaya al zawaj waltalaq fi Amrika (The Objectives of Sharia and the family: Critical Reading in Marriage and Divorce in American Muslim Family). Herndon, Virginia: The International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), 2013.
Muslim Women and Global Challenges: Seeking Change Through a Quranic Textual Approach and the Prophetic Model. Institute of Objective Studies, 2012.
What Islam Says about Domestic Violence: A Guide for Helping Muslim Families, 2008.[12]
Articles
"With Aisha in Mind: Reading Surat al-Nur through the Qur’an’s structural unity in Muslim Women and Gender Justice: Concepts, Sources, and Histories" edited by
Dina El Omari,
Juliane Hammer, and
Mouhanad Khorchide. Routledge, 2020.
"Kafāla: The Qur'anic-Prophetic Model of Orphan Care" in Journal of Islamic Faith & Practice. 2020.
"Transformational Teaching: Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) as a Teacher and Murabbī" in Journal of Islamic Faith and Practice, 2019.
"Al-wahda al-binaʾiyya li-l-Qurʾan: A Methodology for Understanding the Qur'an in the Modern Day" in Journal of Islamic Faith and Practice, 2018.
"Muslim Women as Religious Scholars: A Historical Survey" in Muslima Theology: The Voices of Muslim Women Theologians edited by
Ednan Aslan,
Marcia Hermansen, and Elif Medeni. Peter Lang (Peter-Lang-Verlagsgruppe), 2013.
"The Qur'anic Model for Harmony in Family Relations" in Change From Within: Diverse Perspectives on Domestic Violence in Muslim Community edited by Maha Alkhateeb and Salma Elkadi Abugideirii. Peaceful Families, 2007.