Why amina wadud Should Be as Famous as Malcolm X: The Life and Work of a Great American Feminist and Muslim Scholar-Activist | Carla Power

Carla Power frames wadud not just as a leading Islamic scholar and activist, but as an American public intellectual with a global impact. Drawing on archival materials, she will discuss wadud’s journey, from her childhood as a Methodist preacher’s daughter from an economically disadvantaged background, to her adolescence spent living with white families in Massachusetts, through to her decades spearheading civil rights movements on four continents–all while a single mother of five.

Critical to understanding wadud is her experience and ever-changing relationship to both Islam and the United States. Now recognised as a leading theologian, changing hearts, minds and laws in Muslim-majority countries, wadud’s story and work have resulted in countless Muslim women and queer people seeing their faith anew.

Two-time Pulitzer finalist Carla Power started her journalistic career at Newsweek, as a writer and foreign correspondent reporting from Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Her reportage and essays have appeared in Time, Vogue, The New York Times Magazine, The Guardian, Foreign Policy and other periodicals. Her first book, If the Oceans Were Ink, an account of studying the Qur’an with a traditional Islamic scholar, was short-listed for the National Book Award as well as the Pulitzer Prize. Her second book, Home, Land, Security, looked at why people get drawn into extremist groups—and why they leave. She is currently at work on Child of Empire, a memoir of American imperial privilege.