Panoramic Overviews
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It was in July 1998 that the Circle of Friends of the Zahira Abdin Chair first met to deliberate on a new field in the academy, and on ways and means of bridging the gap between scholarship and activism... Although the Chair was announced in Leesburg Virginia, at the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences, yet it was in Cairo that the founders sought to inaugurate its activities: partly in honor of the woman doctor whose name was chosen to grace the Chair. The Friends constituted the core of 'riwaq zahra' and the association for studying women in civilization (ASWIC) was its immediate offspring. |
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Dr. Zahira Abdin is an outstanding example of the modern Muslim woman whose career speaks of a life time of public and altruistic service, where talent,time, and energy were lavished on the sick, the poor and the needy. She is a gifted pediatrician and heart specialist. She is the recipient of the honorary doctorate of medicine from the University of Edinburgh, (1980) Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians UK, and the Mother of Doctors (Egypt). She is also the architect of hospitals, schools, and other notable institutions in Egypt and outside Egypt. The outset of her career however is something that many young hardworking mothers can relate to....!لنبذة عن سيرتها بالعربية انظر هنا..... و......هناك... |
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Nadwa - Greater Cairo Library Auditorium |
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| At about the same time as the initiative in Cairo, the promise of another offshoot to the Zahira Chair shone on the Moroccan horizons... Morocco is the home of a venerable tradition of Muslim learning, where one of the earliest and most distinguished Mosque-Schools in Islam (al Qarawiyyin) was founded by a pious woman in the early third hijri century. It is to honor a cherished tradition and its keeper, and link it to its progeny in the modern Muslim world, that the Circle of Friends carries the name al Fihriyya... Below is a glimpse from a workshop held in Rabat in late 1999. |  |
Muslim women studies is a new interdisciplinary field that comes to the academic scene with a vision and a sense of mission. As it works its way into the global forum of ideas and intellect, it hopes to bring with it perspectives from a tradition of thought and a universe of experience that have much to contribute. However, it takes time to build a front, and shore up the requisite experience and scholarship to build a community of learners and achievers... and this takes dedication, perseverance, and sheer resolve to keep the torch burning... |
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THE FIHRIYAS (Rabat -Maroc) |
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... 'heart to heart' in Casablanca - Univ. |
