South Africa
Women's Rights
Hijri Unknown-Present (AH); Common Era Unknown-Present (CE)
Fatima Seedat is an academic, activist and consultant who’s work focuses on gender and Islamic law. Ms. Seedat received her Ph.D. Candidate at McGill University, Canada, where her dissertation investigates how Islamic law conceptualizes “women”. Now, she holds a Senior Lectureship at the school of African and Gender Studies, Anthropology and Linguistics at the University of Cape Town. Ms. Seedat is the co-founder of Shura Yabafazi, a South African NGO that focuses on women’s rights in Muslim family law. She has also worked as the parliamentary liaison for the South African Commission on Gender Equality. She was part of the research and writing team for Knowing Our Rights, a handbook on Muslim family laws and practices around the world produced by Women Living under Muslim Laws (WLUML). Recently she worked with Equitas (formerly the Canadian Human Rights Foundation) to produce training resources for human rights activists working on women’s rights in Muslim communities. Ms. Seedat believes that there is much room for growth and development in the study and practice of women’s rights in Muslim family laws, especially in the theoretical frameworks we use to understand our struggles. She looks forward to being a part of this growth.
