Fatima Mernissi

Fatema Mernissi
Fatema Mernissi (Erasmus Prize 2004)
Native name	Arabic: فاطمة مرنيسي‎‎
Born	1940 Fez, Morocco
Died	30 November 2015
Occupation	sociologist
Nationality	Morocco
Alma mater	University of Paris Brandeis University
Literary movement	feminist
Notable awards	Prince of Asturias Awards

Fatema (or Fatima) Mernissi (Arabic: فاطمة مرنيسي‎‎; 1940 – 30 November 2015) was a Moroccan feminist writer and sociologist.

Fatema Mernissi was born in Fez, Morocco. She grew up in the harem of her affluent paternal grandmother along with various female kin and servants. She received her primary education in a school established by the nationalist movement, and secondary level education in an all-girls school funded by the French protectorate. In 1957, she studied political science at the Sorbonne and at Brandeis University, gaining her doctorate there. She returned to work at the Mohammed V University and taught at the Faculté des Lettres between 1974 and 1981 on subjects such as methodology, family sociology and psychosociology. She became known internationally mainly as an Islamic feminist.

Mernissi was a lecturer at the Mohammed V University of Rabat and a research scholar at the University Institute for Scientific Research, in the same city. She died in Rabat on 30 November 2015.

As an Islamic feminist, Mernissi was largely concerned with Islam and women's roles in it, analyzing the historical development of Islamic thought and its modern manifestation. Through a detailed investigation of the nature of the succession to Muhammad, she cast doubt on the validity of some of the hadith (sayings and traditions attributed to him), and therefore the subordination of women that she sees in Islam, but not necessarily in the Qur'an. She wrote extensively about life within harems, gender, and public and private spheres.