African Journal of Gender and Religion
type: channel
description: The AJGR is an online, peer-reviewed, open-access journal for the transdisciplinary study of gender and religion in Africa. The AJGR is housed in The Desmond Tutu Centre for Religion and Social Justice at the University of the Western Cape. The journal seeks to explore the ways in which power operates in gendered relationships and the ways in which this power is determined and promoted by religious and cultural norms. The African Journal of Gender and Religion is a DHET Accredited Journal. Online ISSN 2707-2991
publisher: Desmond Tutu Centre for Religion and Social Justice,University of the Western Cape, UJ Press
language: en
publication name: African Journal of Gender and Religion
issn: 2707-2991
copyright: The African Journal of Gender and Religion is an Open Access journal, therefore all content is freely available without charge to the user or institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of Open Access. Licensing information <a href="https://zaf01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcreativecommons.org%2Flicenses%2Fby%2F4.0%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cwikusvz%40uj.ac.za%7Cd3aaf306a6374f91d70b08dd3a07391d%7Cfa785acd36ef41bc8a9489841327e045%7C0%7C0%7C638730524955732529%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=jNmReQ52pjmNVkKRzz2cWcY%2BKopJmLHO0w0B2sE7ypg%3D&reserved=0">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
items: KUPI Approach to Qur’an and Hadith Re-interpretation
items: Challenging Boundaries in Acts 8:26-40: Toward seeing “othered bodies” through Decolonial Feminist Eyes
items: Naming, Embodiment, and the Ethics of Seeing in Dangerous Times
items: Chronicles of a Collective Claim to Religious Authority
items: Nadar, Sarojini. Gender, Genocide, Gaza and the Book of Esther: Engaging Texts of Terror(ism). Oxon: Routledge, 2025.
items: Selective Violence-Blindness in the Word and the World: Analysing Roots, Exploring Interventions
items: Can African Women be Womanists?
items: Alternate Expressions of Islam Through Film Videos in Kenya: Muslim Women Filmmakers Countering Social Exclusion in Kenya
items: Front pages
items: Contents page
items: Observations from the outside
items: Issuing Justice
items: Feminist Jurisprudence, Women Ulama and Iftā in Indonesia
items: Appendix 2: Kebun Jambu Pledge on Women’s Religious Leadership
items: Appendix 1: Annotated Readings
items: Front Pages
items: Contents Page
items: KUPI’s Gender Campaigns, Digital Activism, and a Counterpublic in the Making
items: Editorial
items: The Politics of Gender Reform in West Africa: Family, Religion, and the State by Ludovic Lado
items: Losing the Lost Coin
items: [In] Searching Our Mothers’ Archives
items: Theology and Women’s Agency in the Context of Intimate Partner Violence in Ghana
items: Religious Mapping, Epistemic Risk and Archival Adventure in Athambile Masola's Ilifa
items: Deprivation of Land Tenure to Daughters of Mother Earth
items: Called and Queer
items: The Domination of Mother Earth, Gender-Based Violence, and the (Dis)Ease of Eve
items: When Race, Rape, and Religion Collide
items: Wearing Christ: A Lived Theology of the Uniform among Reformed Women in Zambia
items: Advancing Gender Equality in Muslim Leadership

KUPI Approach to Qur’an and Hadith Re-interpretation
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description: Critical theory argues that knowledge is not value free. It is influenced by the interest, context, and background of the knowledge producers. Many books of tafsir (Qur’anic exegesis) have been written, primarily by men based on their experiences. These tafsirs are not free from male interest. As Farid Esack argues, classical tafsirs, mostly written by men, tend to be male-biased and discriminatory against women. Since the late 1990s, with the growing influence of global Muslim feminism, there have been increasing number of books in Indonesia that criticize the male-biased interpretations of the Qur’an and produce alternative readings from an equal gender perspective, such as those written by Nasaruddin Umar, Zaitunah Subhan, Nurjannah Ismail, Husein Muhammad, and many others. Recent works have been produced by Badriyah Fayumi, Nur Rofiah and Faqihuddin Abdul Kodir, the leading founders and organizers of the Congress of Indonesian Women Ulama (KUPI). This article explores three new methodologies of tafsir developed in the current Indonesian context by three scholars: Badriyah Fayumi’s reading of maʿrūf (religiously, reasonably, and socially acceptable), Nur Rofiah’s concept of women’s haqiqi (real) justice, and Faqihuddin Abdul Kodir hermeneutical approach of qirā’ah mubādalah (reciprocal reading). These new approaches to understanding Islamic sources were launched during KUPI II in 2022 to be KUPI’s methodology.
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creator: Nina Nurmila
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Nina Nurmila https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-08-13
publication date: 2025-08-13
doi: 10.36615/vqcta754

Challenging Boundaries in Acts 8:26-40: Toward seeing “othered bodies” through Decolonial Feminist Eyes
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description: Cartography, the scientific name for “mapping”, sets boundaries that separate people and places. As a metaphor, it is “another name for stories told by winners”, which may also refer to the politics of knowledge production captured in biblical texts. As such, stories mapped by hegemonic powers ignore the presence, knowledge, and insights of the marginalized “othered”. Reception history of the story mapped in Acts 8:26-40, and by implication sermons preached on this biblical text, primarily lends itself to the advancement of the Christian missionary task – proselytization. The story of the Ethiopian eunuch has generally served as a literary prop to “proclaim the Good News”. Explicit references to racial and sexual identity markers in the text are generally “glossed over” and the unnamed character is seen as the “other” in need of salvation. This paper explores how, when seen from a decolonial feminist perspective, a different picture of the unnamed Ethiopian eunuch emerges. The argument made here is that when hegemonic understandings of the biblical text are questioned, boundaries that separate people and places are challenged to reveal a theological map of radical inclusivity.
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creator: Miranda Pillay
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Miranda Pillay https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-12-31
publication date: 2025-12-31
doi: 10.36615/z6cg6x91

Naming, Embodiment, and the Ethics of Seeing in Dangerous Times
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subject: Editorial
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creator: Sarojini Nadar
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Sarojini Nadar https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2026-02-02
publication date: 2026-02-02
doi: 10.36615/swmy5s65

Chronicles of a Collective Claim to Religious Authority
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description: This paper chronicles KUPI’s collective claim to religious authority for women ulama in Indonesia, from the perspective of the initiators of this movement. It reveals some of the thought process behind key actions taken by KUPI during its first decade in making this collective claim, particularly on how KUPI locates itself in Indonesia’s multiple histories of struggle towards social justice, how it constructs its broad-based and inclusive movement in order to make its bold claim, and how recognition of religious authority takes form at the community level and in the personal lives of KUPI’s women ulama. This chronicle draws on the authors’ engagements, analysis, and reflections as part of the initiators and leadership of KUPI.
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creator: Kamala Chandrakirana
creator: Faqihuddin Abdul Kodir
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Kamala Chandrakirana, Faqihuddin Abdul Kodir https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-08-13
publication date: 2025-08-13
doi: 10.36615/t0726023

Nadar, Sarojini. Gender, Genocide, Gaza and the Book of Esther: Engaging Texts of Terror(ism). Oxon: Routledge, 2025.
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description: N/A
subject: BOOK REVIEWS
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creator: Alexiana Fry
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Alexiana Fry https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-12-31
publication date: 2025-12-31
doi: 10.36615/1e5fz633

Selective Violence-Blindness in the Word and the World: Analysing Roots, Exploring Interventions
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description: While, in theory, largely opposed to violence, the Church, conceived broadly, has historically and in contemporary times been complicit in the legitimation of various forms of violence. To makes sense of this, this paper theorises the concept of selective violence-blindness as a phenomenon operating within the church to legitimise violence enacted upon certain bodies. It does this through analysing and drawing connections between two examples. The first highlights hegemonic readings of Hagar’s story in Genesis 16 to highlight selective violence-blindness in engagements with “the word”. The second centres hegemonic readings of the genocide in Gaza to highlight selective violence-blindness in engagements with “the world”. The paper begins with an exploration of these phenomena. It then offers a framework with which to analyse some of the factors producing this selective violence-blindness. Subsequently, the paper names and analyses three of these factors: coloniality, theological grand narratives, and a failure to recognise discourses as sites of struggle. Finally, drawing on scholars of black theology, Palestinian liberation theology, and black feminism, the paper proposes ways of addressing these factors through liberatory readings of both “the word” and “the world” that make visible and problematise the violence enacted upon certain bodies.
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creator: Thandi Gamedze
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Thandi Gamedze https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-12-31
publication date: 2025-12-31
doi: 10.36615/f94hda90

Can African Women be Womanists?
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description: Alice Walker's definition of a womanist anchors itself in Black feminist identity, but what if different women experience the modifier "Black" in distinct ways? Using narrative theological and womanist religious methodology to center African feminist, African women's theological, and womanist religious voices, this article treats the modifier "Black" as an inflection point that identifies the theological categories and foci from and about which African-descended women speak. It encourages African and African American women to be attentive to why nomenclature and contextuality are important markers of the other’s theological and ethical viewpoint.
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creator: Oluwatomisin Oredein
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Dr. Oluwatomisin Olayinka Oredein https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-12-31
publication date: 2025-12-31
doi: 10.36615/2z674p38

Alternate Expressions of Islam Through Film Videos in Kenya: Muslim Women Filmmakers Countering Social Exclusion in Kenya
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description: This article investigates the ways in which Muslim actors in film video in Kenya make interpretations and reinterpretations of Islamic positions on gender roles, veiling, and women’s education. The foundational discourse on gender roles, women’s education, and veiling is contained in primary sources like the Qur’an and hadith. Muslim scholars articulate this discourse in mosque sermons and madrassa teachings. In the side lines of these official spaces are Muslim actors and filmmakers who use popular cultural forms to articulate re-interpretations of Islam and present their experiences in non-establishment environments. This article examines how Muslim women actors in Kenya use film video to challenge the double-marginal position of women in Islam and Muslims in Kenya. By perfomative processes of scriptwriting, acting, directing, and production, Muslim women performers in film video display various responses to contemporary issues. Using film video as a medium, they contribute to continuing discourses on gender roles, women’s education, and veiling. This article argues that the dynamic response by Muslim actors reinterprets norms and traditional positions as articulated by elites and religious authority figures. Methodologically, the empirical material is based on a literature review, one-on-one interviews, and close context analysis. This is juxtaposed with a critical reading of Utata, an amateur film video produced by Muslim filmmakers in Kenya. The film’s narrative describes and critiques Muslim’s conventional practises and positions. Utata highlights the complex challenges facing Muslims, pointing out that responses to questions around gender roles, women’s education, and veiling are, at times, multiple and varied. The stories told by interviewees indicate how Muslim women actors both support and confront male-centred discourses. The article makes use of Western theory, such as Bourdieu on cultural production and also feminist critiques on patriarchy in Islam. It…
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creator: Mohamed Ndaro
creator: Hassan Ndzovu
creator: Eunice Kamaara
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Mohamed Ndaro, Hassan Ndzovu, Eunice Kamaara https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-12-31
publication date: 2025-12-31
doi: 10.36615/q7hhaw43

Front pages
type: item
subject: Front Matter
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creator: AJGR
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-12-31
publication date: 2025-12-31
doi: 10.36615/g5ns5k46

Contents page
type: item
subject: CONTENTS
  topic: section
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-12-31
publication date: 2025-12-31
doi: 10.36615/32me5643

Observations from the outside
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description: The second convening of the KUPI in November 2022 was attended by international participants who had firsthand opportunity to gauge its relevance beyond Indonesia. Many non-Indonesian scholars and religious activists who observed the developments related to the KUPI conferences in 2017 and 2022 agree that they represent a significant movement within the Muslim world, particularly in Indonesia, where female scholars are actively shaping the discourse on Islam and gender, promoting interpretations that support women's rights and social justice. The central questions in this article are: What makes the KUPI a distinct and promising movement? How can it establish a lasting presence in Indonesia? Not every Muslim community is ready to accept the ideas and methods of the KUPI. Issues that play out at the grassroots level or within women’s circles escape the interest or attention of the mostly male interpreters. The KUPI questions and challenges the dominant patriarchal interpretations of the Qur’an. This is bound to find resonance among Muslim women across the Muslim world and makes translating the KUPI materials into other languages more urgent than ever.
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creator: Nelly van Doorn-Harder
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Nelly van Doorn-Harder https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-08-13
publication date: 2025-08-13
doi: 10.36615/5qms8244

Issuing Justice
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description: The ratification of the Sexual Violence Crime Bill in May 2022 reflects the collective efforts of diverse actors advocating for gender justice in Indonesia, including women ulama from the Congress of Indonesian Women Ulama (Kongres Ulama Perempuan Indonesia/KUPI). Central to this achievement is the KUPI’s pioneering 2017 fatwa condemning sexual violence, which empowered women ulama to mobilize support for the bill. This article explores how KUPI’s fatwa galvanized support for the Bill, helped to overcome resistance, and built lasting coalitions, thereby drawing attention to the overlooked role of women in issuing fatwas and in navigating and reshaping traditional religious frameworks to address gender-based violence. Using qualitative methods—including online observation, textual analysis, and interviews—I examine how women ulama challenge patriarchal interpretations of Islamic law and assert their authority in public religious discourse. I argue that, in social movements, fatwas can serve as internal innovations that offer shared moral guidance, unite actors, and act as mobilizing tools to drive policy change. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of female religious authority in Islamic jurisprudence and highlights shifting gender dynamics in contemporary Muslim societies, with a specific focus on Indonesia.
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creator: Nor Ismah
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Nor Ismah https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-08-13
publication date: 2025-08-13
doi: 10.36615/0tp8a987

Feminist Jurisprudence, Women Ulama and Iftā in Indonesia
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description: Eight years ago a group of Indonesian women scholars who constituted themselves as ‘women ulama’ claimed the epistemic authority to pronounce on matters of Islamic law, and enacted it by issuing three collective fatwas. Six years later they repeated this process and issued four more fatwas. How should we read this development, in terms of the Muslim women’s movement, and the growth and development of Islamic law? Recognising the fatwa as the fundamental element of Islamic legal thought, the work of KUPI continues and expands modern processes of collective fatwa making. Significantly KUPI also add a framework derived from women’s experiences of the law; namely attention to maʿrūf (goodness), mubādalah (hermeneutics of reciprocity), and hakiki (substantive or true) justice. Even as Muslim women advance innovative readings of classical Islamic law and its legal processes, feminism remains entwined in a colonial history that is difficult to lose. And so the feminist associations of the work of the KUPI remain muted for now. Their achievements, however, must be announced and celebrated.
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creator: Fatima Seedat
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Fatima Seedat https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-08-13
publication date: 2025-08-13
doi: 10.36615/z7970092

Appendix 2: Kebun Jambu Pledge on Women’s Religious Leadership
type: item
description: Kebun Jambu Pledge on Women’s Religious Leadership
subject: APPENDICES
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rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-08-13
publication date: 2025-08-13
doi: 10.36615/x7wt3e26

Appendix 1: Annotated Readings
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description: The annotated readings present seminal works on female religious authority in Indonesia, each with a brief summary and reflection on its scholarly contribution.
subject: APPENDICES
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creator: Elizarni
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Elizarni https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-08-13
publication date: 2025-08-13
doi: 10.36615/ty11qh63

Front Pages
type: item
subject: Front Matter
  topic: section
creator: AJGR
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-08-13
publication date: 2025-08-13
doi: 10.36615/c7emsd68

Contents Page
type: item
subject: Contents
  topic: section
creator: AJGR
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-08-13
publication date: 2025-08-13
doi: 10.36615/ncgpq629

KUPI’s Gender Campaigns, Digital Activism, and a Counterpublic in the Making
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description: The expansion of the Internet and social media platforms over the past decades has empowered many progressive Muslim women’s groups associated with the Congress of Indonesian Women Ulama (KUPI) to leverage digital realms for their Islamic feminist campaigns. However, their digital initiatives often remain undervalued due to the marginalization of their gender discourses compared to the dominant conservative narratives surrounding women’s issues in the country. The aim of this article is to examine the last four years of the KUPI’s online feminist campaigns, especially those from after its second congress in November 2022. I focus on the KUPI’s creative endeavors to expand their feminist ideas through activities in online spaces and the potential of these endeavors to create an environment where they can articulate and increase their voices against the patriarchal discourses on women prevalent in Indonesian society. I draw my data from a combination of online observation from the KUPI's media networks, interviews with individuals involved in the KUPI's digital initiatives, and desk research on KUPI-related topics. I frame the data with a theoretical approach that examines the intersection of women’s digital activism and the creation of counterpublics in contemporary society. This framework acknowledges the capacity of these Islamic feminist activists to publicly discuss women-related issues, raise awareness about gender justice, and foster collective action aimed at improving women’s health and well-being.
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creator: Ahmad Nuril Huda
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Ahmad Nuril Huda https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-08-13
publication date: 2025-08-13
doi: 10.36615/8pgh2966

Editorial
type: item
subject: Editorial
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creator: Sarojini Nadar
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-01-07
publication date: 2025-01-07
doi: 10.36615/v417ax98

The Politics of Gender Reform in West Africa: Family, Religion, and the State by Ludovic Lado
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description: No abstract is available for this article.
subject: BOOK REVIEWS
  topic: section
creator: Primrose Bimha
rights: Copyright (c) 2023 Primrose Bimha https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
date: 2023-07-31
publication date: 2023-07-31
doi: 10.36615/ajgr.v29i1.2562

Losing the Lost Coin
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description: The Bible continues to be a contested book with texts that are both detrimental to women’s full participation and inclusive and liberating with the latter often being hidden and sometimes deliberately obscured, however, they can be uncovered. The question of which of these traditions go back to the historical Jesus is contested. Historical Jesus traditions would have higher authority in the eyes of critical readers, and denying this status to traditions diminishes their importance. This article examines the tradition of “gender doublets” where double parables cite two examples for the same idea that illustrate male and female reality. The author argues that the frequency of these doublets, as well as the spread of evidence and the variability of construction, make it very probable that these doublets go back to the historical Jesus. In an environment hostile to women, it is more likely that parables like “the lost coin” or “the woman baking with leaven” got “lost” or were deliberately omitted from parallel traditions rather than the possibility of a later redactor compiling or composing such doublets. The Bible continues to be a contested book with texts that are both detrimental to women’s full participation and inclusive and liberating with the latter often being hidden and sometimes deliberately obscured, however, they can be uncovered. The question of which of these traditions go back to the historical Jesus is contested. Historical Jesus traditions would have higher authority in the eyes of critical readers, and denying this status to traditions diminishes their importance. This article examines the tradition of “gender doublets” where double parables cite two examples for the same idea that illustrate male and female reality. The author argues that the frequency of these doublets, as well as the spread of evidence and the variability of construction, make it very probable that these doublets go back to the historical Jesus. In an environment hostile to women, …
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creator: J Gertrud Tönsing
rights: Copyright (c) 2023 J Gertrud Tönsing https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
date: 2023-07-31
publication date: 2023-07-31
doi: 10.36615/ajgr.v29i1.2445

[In] Searching Our Mothers’ Archives
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description: Black feminist scholarship provokes us to reimagine archives in creative and speculative ways and echoes everyday Black communities’ deep investment in memory that rejects the idea of African people as a people without history. I enter this discourse through Umi’s Archive is an interdisciplinary and multimedia research project that draws on my family archive to engage everyday Black women’s thought to investigate key questions of archives and power. In this article, I describe my experience curating, preserving, and presenting the archive and how that became a process of de-disciplining myself, turning to intimacy and mourning to learn from Black women by searching in my Umi’s archive.
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creator: Su'ad Abdul Khabeer
rights: Copyright (c) 2023 Su'ad Abdul Khabeer https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
date: 2023-07-31
publication date: 2023-07-31
doi: 10.36615/ajgr.v29i1.2444

Theology and Women’s Agency in the Context of Intimate Partner Violence in Ghana
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description: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a growing problem in sub-Saharan Africa that limits women’s agency. Various studies have found that cultural norms and religion sustain women’s experiences of IPV, inspiring various theories among feminist scholars and within religion on women’s agency. This study determines whether and how theology contributes to the agency of IPV survivors. I draw upon constructivist grounded theory to inductively analyze the stories of thirteen abused Christian women in a mainline church in southern Ghana. My findings indicate that multiple systems, including informal social support networks, constrain survivors while simultaneously serving as conditions for their personal faith and individually constructed theologies. Indeed, these serve as catalysts to their self-enactments and emerging agency. These findings provide nuance to existing (and contested) conceptions of agency.
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creator: Elorm Ama Stiles-Ocran
rights: Copyright (c) 2023 Elorm Ama Stiles-Ocran https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
date: 2023-07-31
publication date: 2023-07-31
doi: 10.36615/ajgr.v29i1.2423

Religious Mapping, Epistemic Risk and Archival Adventure in Athambile Masola's Ilifa
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description: In this essay, I offer a feminist reading of Athambile Masola’s award-winning debut collection of poetry, Ilifa, focusing on her use of religious imagination. I demonstrate how Masola’s repeated use of religious metaphor, language, and Christian location illuminates more than aspects of religious community, piety, and belonging, important though these are. In Ilifa, specific appearances of religious language, as well as the rhetorical uses to which religious imagery and the disruption of Christian iconography are put, reveal the poet’s understanding of the making of transgenerational southern African feminist publicness. Her deployment of Christian vocabularies amplifies multigenerational African (women’s) contribution to (South) Africa’s intellectual and creative archives. While her religious references are not confined to Christianity, I limit myself to Biblical references to better tend to the intersections of feminist mapping, epistemic risk, and the poet’s engagement with two centuries of South African isiXhosa literary archive in print. Masola references these intellectual entries into publicness to negotiate her own admission into literary public life. I surface the context and conceptual landscapes of Masola’s own poetic project.
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creator: Pumla Gqola
rights: Copyright (c) 2023 Pumla Gqola https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
date: 2023-07-31
publication date: 2023-07-31
doi: 10.36615/ajgr.v29i1.2320

Deprivation of Land Tenure to Daughters of Mother Earth
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description: The judicial system in Eswatini operates on the basis of Roman-Dutch common law and Swazi customary law and administers land occupancy through the dual landholding system of freehold title and Swazi nation land. Tenure over Swazi nation land is governed by Swazi customary law and not defined by legislation. Instead, land is controlled and held in trust by the King and is allocated by chiefs according to traditional non-codified provisions. Whilst Section 211 of the Swazi Constitution (2005) provides that “a citizen of Swaziland, without regard to gender, shall have equal access to land for normal domestic purposes”, traditional leaders, who routinely run the administration of the Swazi nation land and customary land tenure, often ignore it. Ordinarily, only male household heads are eligible to secure land through the customary process known as “kukhonta” that initiates males into the chiefdom and marks their commitment and allegiance to the chief. Under Swazi law and custom, a women can only be granted land rights by the chief through her husband, male relatives, or male children. This paper argues that women are alienated from the land rights that Mother Earth has bequeathed to all humanity despite the similarities of women’s lived experiences and that of the environment. Three (3) scenarios found through library research are cited as examples of Swati women’s lived experiences with regard to land accessibility. The paper concludes by noting that the implementation of Agenda 2030 for sustainable development, and particularly Sustainable Development Goal number 5 (SDG 5), which is geared towards establishing gender equality and empowering all women and girls, can amongst other initiatives be achieved through equal land rights granted to all the children of Mother Earth. However, unless and until societal constructs on land acquisition and ownership are reinterpreted, Emaswati women will continue to receive only the breadcrumbs that fall from the master’s table.
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creator: Sonene Nyawo
rights: Copyright (c) 2023 Sonene Nyawo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
date: 2023-07-31
publication date: 2023-07-31
doi: 10.36615/ajgr.v29i1.1499

Called and Queer
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description: N/A
subject: BOOK REVIEWS
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creator: Thandi Gamedze
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Thandi Gamedze https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
date: 2025-01-05
publication date: 2025-01-05
doi: 10.36615/38hegb60

The Domination of Mother Earth, Gender-Based Violence, and the (Dis)Ease of Eve
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description: The misuse of religious texts, particularly the Genesis creation story, has historically been used to justify the exploitation of both the Earth and women. This justification, rooted in patriarchal interpretations of scripture, has led to environmental degradation and gender-based violence (GBV) and disproportionately affected marginalized communities, especially women of color. This article examines the interconnectedness of these issues, exploring how the domination of “Mother Earth” and the subjugation of women are intertwined. By analyzing the historical context, religious interpretations, and societal structures that perpetuate these forms of violence, this article aims to shed light on the urgent need for an intersectional approach to address both environmental destruction and GBV. Through a critical examination of the “(Dis)ease of Eve”, this article challenges traditional narratives and seeks to reclaim the power and agency of women, particularly women of the African Diaspora, in the fight for a more just and sustainable future.
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creator: Mary Hearns-Ayodele
creator: Glencie Rhedrick
creator: Burdette D. Lowe
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Mary Hearns-Ayodele, Glencie Rhedrick, Burdette D. Lowe https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
date: 2025-01-05
publication date: 2025-01-05
doi: 10.36615/jx7eke02

When Race, Rape, and Religion Collide
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description: UN Women identified gender-based Violence (GBV) as the shadow pandemic of the COVID-19 pandemic between 2020 and 2022. For almost two years, women and girls worldwide were sheltering in homes with abusive intimate partners and experiencing violent trauma and even death. The United States (US) was among the nations that experienced lockdown-related spikes in GBV. Indeed, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that the domestic violence crisis peaked in early 2021 during the COVID-19 lockdown, mostly among women and children who were having to shelter with their abusers. Among this population of women living in the US who were experiencing the shadow pandemic were female college/university students who experienced either intimate partner violence (IPV) while sheltering with abusive partners and/or cyber intimate partner aggression (IPA) via technology and social media. Black female college students were not only victims of IPV and IPA but also of femicide during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a case study of an HBCU chaplain, this article explores intervention in and prevention of IPV, IPA, and femicide during the COVID-19 pandemic at the intersection of race, gender, class, and religion for African-descended female college students. Specifically, this article will investigate what role historical black college/university (HBCU) chaplains play in intervening in lockdown IPV, IPA, and femicide. Using the concept of positionality, the author argues that the HBCU chaplain is a key on-campus figure who can intervene and prevent sexual assault on college and university campuses. The article concludes with suggestions for necessary further research needed to address GBV on HBCU campuses.
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creator: Evelyn Parker
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Evelyn Parker https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
date: 2025-01-05
publication date: 2025-01-05
doi: 10.36615/sf080b07

Wearing Christ: A Lived Theology of the Uniform among Reformed Women in Zambia
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description: Members of African ecclesiastical women’s organisations can be recognised by a special uniform they wear during meetings, Christian holidays, and designated Sundays. This uniform, and its wearing, can be considered a kind of religious practice that carries theological meaning. Often, this practice reflects a lived theology shaped by women's everyday life experiences, rather than a formalised theology. This article teases out women’s lived theology of the uniform based on empirical research (observations, interviews, focus groups) from one women’s fellowship, the Chigwirizano cha Azimai of the Reformed Church in Zambia. The article illustrates how the uniform is not simply a symbol of membership but, rather, a significant embodiment of the faith and religious identity of the members of the women's fellowship. It represents the core doctrines of the Christian faith, a commitment to a holy lifestyle, and a divine calling to be a light in a dark world. It also reminds the wearers to stand firm in a world full of socio-economic challenges, patriarchy, and spiritual warfare. For some, it acts as a shield, protecting them against temptation and evil powers.
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creator: Marike Blok-Sijtsma
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Marike Blok-Sijtsma https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-12-31
publication date: 2025-12-31
doi: 10.36615/8e2gbd98

Advancing Gender Equality in Muslim Leadership
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description: Most In the post-apartheid landscape of South Africa, the constitutional promise of equality continues to challenge traditional power structures, particularly within religious institutions. This article critically examines the systematic exclusion of women from leadership roles in Muslim ulama bodies, despite significant advancements in religious education and scholarly achievements by Muslim women. The research argues that the exclusion of women from ulama bodies is neither theologically justified nor practically defensible. By drawing on egalitarian interpretations of Islamic traditions, historical examples of women's scholarly contributions in Islam, and contemporary global practices of women's religious leadership, the article challenges entrenched patriarchal interpretations that restrict women's roles. Specifically, this study explores the historical context of the Muslim community in South Africa, the current composition of ulama bodies, and the extensive scholarly achievements of Muslim women. It highlights how these bodies wield considerable authority in matters of marriage, divorce, inheritance, and issuing religious legal opinions, yet remain exclusively male-led. The article reveals that Muslim women in South Africa are now extensively educated in Islamic sciences and are fully capable of occupying leadership positions. By advocating for gender diversity in religious leadership, the research proposes a path towards more inclusive, representative, and equitable religious governance that aligns with both Islamic principles and South Africa’s constitutional values of gender equality.
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creator: Fatima Essop
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Fatima Essop https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
date: 2025-01-05
publication date: 2025-01-05
doi: 10.36615/ryntph87