The purpose of this study is to examine and analyze the depiction of women in Quran from an Islamic feminist perspective. The questions that my study is based on are: How is the woman accounted in the Quran according to Islamic feminists? How do Muslim feminists argue and what do they base their reasoning on? My study is based on analyzes of the feminists’ works and statements. The results were analyzed with the help of different theories including Miriam Cookes “multiple critique”, Jan Hjärpes “The Islamic basket”, Jonathan Potters “methodological relativism” and Luckman & Bergers “social construction of reality”. The main result of this study is that it highlights how different Islamic feminists interpret the Quran in relation to the present and how their interpretations have created debates internationally. I also discuss the importance of new interpretations and the globalization for Muslim women.

To many, marriage is a fundamental part of life. The union of two individuals, often in the presence of those most dear, they vow stay loyal and support each other throughout their daily lives. Often, the marriage is fulfilled in the context of religion. To Islam, marriage is a sacred union assisting the couple on their spiritual journey in life. It is said that the Prophet Muhammad expressed “One who marries has already guarded half of his religion, therefore he should fear Allah for the other half”. This paper aims to analyse two different interreligious perspectives on marriage, and the existing view on sex and gender within the concept of marriage. To achieve this, a descriptive onset to idea analysis is used as a method. This analysis of this paper is based on four different analytical categories, or questions, which aims to display the existing concept of marriage of two books: Believing Women in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur’an, by Asma Barlas, and Marriage and Morals in Islam, by Sayyid Muhammad Rizvi. The analysis shows that both accounts present an institutional view on marriage, with distinctly expressed terms or ideals on marriage - although Barlas creates more space for contractual dimensions to exist within the institutional view. As to gender and sex, this paper concludes that the views are based on the idea of essential biological differences between men and women. The duties and ideals of marriage is based on those differences, but Barlas stresses that this does not show that the Qur’an supports inequality or a sexual bias. As to Rizvi, it is more difficult to conclude whether his view on sex differences supports equality of the sexes, or a hierarchal outlook where the male is privileged or superior in comparison to women.

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During the late 19th century, arts and literature had a surge of sensory awareness, made manifest through sensory analogy, intersensory metaphor, and synaesthesia. This dissertation explores this phenomenon through a study of five poets and artists: Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Barlas, and Julia Margaret Cameron. Using imaginative sensing, these artists transformed the relationship between artist and observer, assigning greater responsibility to their audience while simultaneously asserting artistic control of their work. Their fascination with sensory mixing and multisensory awareness demonstrates unique ideas about perception and embodiment, ideas that have sparked both controversy and imitation. I begin with a brief history of the condition known as synaesthesia, considering its position as an “abnormal” clinical condition, a desired artistic state of transcendence, and a simple transfer of metaphor. Chapter 1 describes how two French poems brought synaesthesia to public consciousness and prompted a literary movement. In Chapter 2, I explore how poet-painter Dante Rossetti used “acts of attention” and unheard music to demand viewers’ embodied participation. Chapter 3 introduces John Barlas, a relatively obscure British poet who crafted exotic, sensory-laden environments that hovered between the actual and imagined, insisting that the reader use his sensory imagination to participate. Moving to the realm of photography in Chapter 4, I consider Julia Margaret Cameron, whose “out-of-focus” pictures changed photography from a mechanistic technology to high art by incorporating the sense of touch. Historically, the senses have been ranked and separated, with priority given to vision, the sense most associated with reason. I argue that considering the senses as bundles of interconnected experiences and through imagination rather than as isolated methods of physical perception can show how the senses function culturally and give us a much greater understanding of how we process the world. While no time period has regarded the senses with the intensity of the late 19th century, the embodied approach of the era can be applied to our current “sensory revolution” and can impact how we regard technology, cultural studies, and interdisciplinarity. Evaluating how 19th century artists blended the senses through imaginative constructs gives a more thorough explanation of the characteristic sensuality of the period and provides a model for how sensing can function more fully in current endeavors.