Olfa Youssef - The Perplexity of a Muslim Woman: Over Inheritance, Marriage, and Homosexuality

The Perplexity of a Muslim Woman

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Y?usuf, Ulfah author. | Zayzafoon, Lamia Ben Youssef, 1966- translator.

Title: The perplexity of a Muslim woman : over inheritance, marriage, and homosexuality / by Olfa Youssef ; translated by Lamia Benyoussef.

Other titles: ?Hayrat Muslimah. English

Description: Lanham : Lexington Books, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016045727 (print) | LCCN 2016047582 (ebook) | ISBN 9781498541695 (cloth : alkaline paper) | ISBN 9781498541701 (electronic)

Subjects: LCSH: Women (Islamic law) | Inheritance and succession (Islamic law) | Marriage (Islamic law) | Women in Islam.

Classification: LCC KBP526.32.Y87 A34 2017 (print) | LCC KBP526.32.Y87 (ebook) | DDC 342/.1670878dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016045727

TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

None knows its interpretation but God
(The Amramites [li Imrn] 3:7)

To my mother and father

This book translation project started in 2010 when I was invited to speak at a conference on critical theory and cultural production of African literature and cinema jointly held by Michigan State University and the University of Michigan.

While Feth Benslma has subjected psychoanalysis to the challenge of Islam, in her book Le Coran au risque de la psychanalyse (The Quran and the Challenge of Psychoanalysis), patriarchal culture framed the religious scholars interpretation of Quranic verses in matters of inheritance, marriage, and homosexuality, showing in some cases that even when the Quranic text is clear, legal scholars dismissed the explicit ruling in Gods text to resort to consensus (ijm) to protect their male interests, especially in matters of inheritance and marriage. Departing from essentialist readings of the Quran in the Hnaf, Mlik, Shfi, and Hanbal schools of Islamic jurisprudence which purport to interpret, translate, and explain divine truth to the ignorant Muslim masses, Youssef states in the preliminary pages of her book that knowledge of Gods intent is impossible as attested in His statement None knows its true interpretation but God (The Amramites 3:7).

Born on 21 November 1966 in Sousse, Tunisia, Youssef studied at al Mahatta Elementary School and earned in 1983 her High School Diploma in Arts from Le Lyce de jeunes filles de Sousse with honors. She then joined the cole Normale Suprieure of Sousse from which she graduated with a B.A. degree in Arabic Studies in 1987. Because she was Valedictorian throughout her undergraduate education, she received President Habb Bourgubas Award in 1987. Within two years, she received the Certificat dAptitude la Recherche in linguistics (1988) and the Agrgation in Arabic Letters with Outstanding Distinction (1989) from the Faculty of Arts and Human Sciences of Tunis. In 2002, she became Docteur dtat in Arabic Letters and Civilization after successfully defending (also with Outstanding Distinction) a dissertation on Polysemy in the Quran at the Faculty of Arts and Letters of Manouba. A professor in Arabic Studies, she is currently holding a joint appointment in three Tunisian institutions of higher education: the Faculty of Arts and Letters of Manouba (since 1989), the Higher Institute of Languages of Tunis (since 2014), and the High Institute of Arts of Sousse (since 2007). Considered Tunisias child prodigy throughout her educational career, she also served in key important administrative positions, namely the director of the Higher Institute for Childrens Executives in Carthage (20032009) and the director of Tunisias National Library Beit al Hikma (20092011). She also hosted several literary and educational programs on national TV such as A Book in a Few Minutes (19942004) to encourage literacy, A One Hour Dialogue (19941995 and 1997) to address the problems of the Tunisian youths, Polemics (20002001) which covered debates in literature, philosophy, and social sciences, Themed Evenings (2001) which discussed biographies and important historical events, The Books of the Day (20002001) that aimed at introducing to the layman key concepts in the social sciences, as well as some religious programs like Biography of the Prophet (2007), Women in the Quran and the Sunna (2008) and Islams Values (2008). A public figure, she hosted a morning talk show on Jawhara FM Radio (20152016) and was frequently a guest-speaker at France 24, Al Arabiya, Al Hurra, and Al Mayadeen, not to mention numerous articles and interviews in the Arabic media.

Her publications covered a plethora of topics ranging from gender
studies, society and education, religious thought, to the exchange between civilizations, with a particular leaning for psychoanalysis, sociology, and linguistics as methodological approaches. As Amin Tais judiciously argues in Islamic Perspectives in Post-Revolutionary Tunisia, Youssefs most important contribution in the field of Islamic Studies is her introduction of the methods of the new scholars in the traditional field of interpreting the Quran and the hadiths: She harnesses modern linguistics, semiology, and psychoanalysis to both deconstruct traditional interpretations and propose new avenues in reading the religious text. She is currently the most prolific and most well-known Tunisian scholar of Arabic expression. In Tunisia alone, The Perplexity of the Muslim Woman, for example, sold about fifteen thousand copies, which is a record for a Tunisian woman author (usually five hundred copies are printed and sold), not to mention pirated copies on the internet. The first edition of Youssefs recent 2014 book The Male is not Like the Female is already at its second edition. In recognition of her scholarly contributions, she has been the recipient of several national honor awards, namely the Zoubeidia Bchir Award from CREDIF for best Academic Arabic Scholarship, the Order of Merit from the Ministry of Culture (2002, 2008), the Order of Merit from the Ministry of Education (2007), and other awards from the city councils of several Tunisian towns like Nabeul (1999), Metouia (2004), and La Goulette (2004). In addition, she served on the jury of several prestigious book awards like the COMAR Book Prize for Best Tunisian Novel (2002, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2010) and Thar al Haddd Book Award (1996).

Since the 14 January 2011 Revolution, which ousted former president Zne El bidne Ben Al (19872011) and catapulted the rest of the Middle East into a series of political upheavals known as the Arab Spring, Youssef became, like most Tunisian academics in the humanities, a