Tahir Sitoto (June 2020): Mediations on Writing the Black African Muslim Self.
Gaboitsiwe Kgomongwe’s research project focuses on the intersections of Islamic law and African customary law in marriage and is informed by the theoretical framework of Black African Muslim subjectivities developed in the scholarship of Dr. Tahir Sitoto. In June 2020. The project invited Dr Sitoto to share his thoughts in conversation with Gabo Kgomongwe.
Prof. amina wadud (August 2019):
On the 12th of August 1994, Professor amina wadud was the first woman to deliver a khutbah at the Claremont Main Road Mosque (CMRM) in Cape Town, South Africa. This event sent a wave of shock and excitement through the global Muslim community which still resounds in our current Muslim context. It animated a critical set of conversations about gender and religious authority in Muslim societies. Celebrating 25 years since Professor wadud’s first khutbah in South Africa, the African Gender Institute and the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Cape Town hosted a series of events to honour Professor wadud’s contribution to the quest of gender justice and inclusive religious authority in August 2019. Chronologically, these events included three events in Durban, hosted by TIP (Taking Islam to the People) which included an Eidgah, the TIP youth event, a closed lecture, followed by a public lecture hosted by the Islamic Studies Research Unit at UKZN. These were followed by five events in the University of Cape Town, namely a commemorative lecture, a closed lecture on Sufism and Divine Feminine, a public seminar on sexual diversity, a women’s thikr evening, a khutbah writing workshop and a women-led Friday congregational prayer. The final event was a seminar mapping the way forward to the coming 25 years, hosted by Claremont Main Road Mosque, the congregation that hosted the event 25 years ago.
AXL4108 Gender, Sexuality and Islam: In 2018 and 2020, Dr Seedat taught this course drawing on the expertise of three visiting scholars:
- Prof Sarojini Nadar (September 2019) spoke on Canon Law and Rape: A Study of the Zuma Trial
- Dr. Shaheed Mathee (September 2018) spoke on Gender and Islamic Law in Timbuktu
- Ecclesia De Lange (October 2018) spoke on Queer Sexuality in the Methodist Church