Muslim Institute Ibn Rushd lecture 2024: The History of Muslim Women in Britain

Ninth Annual Muslim Institute Ibn Rushd lecture. Monday 15 July 2024, Artworkers Guild, central London.

The History of Muslim Women in Britain by Professor Sariya Cheruvallil-
Contractor. Chaired by Shenaz Bunglawala.

About the Muslim Institute Ibn Rushd lectures:

The global history of ideas includes a handful of names whose contributions have stood the test of time: among those most celebrated is the twelfth century Muslim polymath Abu 'l-Walid Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Rushd, known to the Latin West as ‘Averroes’.

Ibn Rushd was a master of philosophy, theology, law and jurisprudence, astronomy, geography, mathematics, medicine, physics and psychology. He is seen as a founding father of secular thought in Western Europe, where his school of philosophy is known as Averroism. In the Muslim world, he is known largely for his defence of philosophy from theological attacks. Today, all over the world, streets, statues and postage-stamps commemorate the life and works of one of the most important philosophers of all time.

The Muslim Institute's series of lectures, in honour of Ibn Rushd, are intended to explore the contemporary relevance of Islam's intellectual history are delivered annually in early summer by notable academics and thinkers. Previous lectures have been on ibn Rushd himself, on aspects of philosophy, on the Birmingham Qur'an, on the crisis of the environment and the sociology of multiculturalism.

Speaker biography:: Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor is Professor in the Sociology of Islam at the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry University, UK. She is Chair (2020-2023) of the Muslims in Britain Research Network (MBRN) and edits Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion (RSSR).

As a feminist sociologist, she interrogates the power dynamics within knowledge production and the implications of the processes and systems of knowledge on society as a whole. Her research portfolio currently includes research on digital religion, vulnerable children, definitions of security and inter-convictional dialogue.

She has several publications including; Demystifying the Muslimah (Routledge 2012), Religion or Belief, Discrimination and Equality: Britain in Global Contexts (Bloomsbury 2013), Islamic Education in Britain: New Pluralist Paradigms (Bloomsbury 2015), Digital Methodologies in the Sociology of Religion (Bloomsbury 2015), Islam on Campus: Contested Identities and the Cultures of Higher Education (OUP 2020) .

Sariya’s latest book, co-edited with Jamie Gillham, is Muslim Women in Britain, 1850–1950: 100 Years of Hidden History published by Hurst (2023).

www,musliminstitute.org

Photos by Rehan Jamil
Video by Robert Hoang