51茶馆

Ayesha S. Chaudhry听is the Rita E. Hauser fellow at Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. She is听Associate Professor of Islamic studies and gender studies at the University of British Columbia. She is the author听of听Domestic Violence and the Islamic Tradition: Ethics, Law, and the Muslim Discourse on Gender听(Oxford University听Press, 2014). She has consulted on high-level national and international cases concerning human rights and religious听pluralism and freedom, as well as on divorce cases involving Muslim-majority countries.

At Radcliffe, Chaudhry is working on a project that constructs a feminist Shari鈥檃 by re-imagining the narrative of 鈥樐�鈥檌sha,听Mu岣�ammad鈥檚 youngest wife. Constructions of '膧'isha are central to justifying and supporting patriarchal Islamic laws,听especially those regarding women鈥檚 political and religious leadership, women鈥檚 testimony, polygamy, child marriage and听virginity testing, slander and corporal punishment for illicit sex, and domestic violence. Therefore, creating a feminist听narrative of 鈥樐�鈥檌sha is necessary for Islamic legal reform. Chaudhry is examining premodern, patriarchal constructions of听鈥樐�鈥檌sha, investigating modern Muslim debates around these laws and proposing strategies for reimagining 鈥樐�鈥檌sha to听frame a narrative for a gender-equal Islamic law. Looking at major Muslim debates about gender through the lens of听鈥樐�鈥檌sha will provide a counter-narrative to conceptions of a patriarchal Islam.

Chaudhry earned her PhD in Middle East and Islamic studies from New York University and a collaborative MA in Near听Eastern civilizations and women鈥檚 studies from the University of Toronto. She is a contributor to the Globe and Mail.听Chaudhry has been an Early Career Scholar at the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies at U51茶馆.听