Despite enduring differences between the Abrahamic traditions Islam, Christianity and Judaism, women of these faiths have a shared experience of exclusion from institutional theological enterprises, where women are depicted as silent subjects of faith. This thesis considers women as speaking subjects in the Qur'an within a literary reading to explore an Abrahamic interfeminist dialogue. The thesis compares how women's subjectivity has been interpreted historically in traditional Islamic scholarship with modem feminist deconstruction of androcentric language, in order to consider how women are presented as addressees of the text. Female speaking roles are explored through the language of dispute (jadala) as a thematic feature of the Qur'an, with the surah-title al-mujadilah, 'she who disputes', as pivotal character. The thesis draws on recent literary scholarship that has called for a canonical understanding of the text, whereby the Qur'an is viewed as a literary unit wherein formal structure is seen to have religious significance. The Qur'anic terms of gender and debate are read as part of an internal Qur'anic semiology that develops from the earlier to the later Qur'anic chapters through the expression of Qur'anic Sign. The chronological consideration of the Qur' an's terms of debate presented a model that critiques women's exclusion from the theological process as revealed knowledge while affirming their inclusion in the revelatory scheme not only for the Muslim addressee of Scripture, but for her Jewish and Christian counterparts as well. The thesis thus presents a novel approach of reading biblical texts in light of a Qur'anic model as an Abrahamic theology of women who speak.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:479019 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Jardim, Georgina L. |
| Contributors | Raphael, Melissa ; Jawad, Haifa Ahmed |
| Publisher | University of Gloucestershire |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://eprints.glos.ac.uk/3172/ |
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