Selected Talks

2009

"Muslim Women's Rights: Frameworks and Interpretations," Regional Conference on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Muslim Societies, Jakarta, Indonesia. March 11-12, 2009.

"Islamic Reform and Gender Equality: Fiqh, Feminism, or CEDAW?" Regional Conference on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Muslim Societies, Jakarta, Indonesia. March 11-12, 2009.

2008

Globalizing Equality: Revisiting the debate, Third International Congress on Islamic Feminism, Barcelona, October 25, 2008.

Re-Understanding Islam: A double critique, Commemorative Lecture, Islamic community, Lisbon, Portugal, June 22, 2008.

Would Spinoza Understand Me? Europe, Islam and the Mirror of Difference, Spinoza Lecture, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, June 5, 2008.

"Believing Women in Islam:" Between secular and religious politics and theology, Spinoza Lecture, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, May 8, 2008.

2007

Hearing the Word, as a Muslim: 13 passages of the Qur'an and religious difference, Cornell University Vespers Service, November 4, 2007.

Can We Speak of Women's Rights in Islam?  Dow Lecture Series, Human Rights and Human Responsibilities, Saginaw Valley State University, Michigan, October 22, 2007.

Lost in Translation: (Muslim) Women and (Films on) Islam, Keynote Address, "Women and Islam" Film Series, National Film Board of Canada, May 22, 2007.

A Collective Purpose: Crossing Cultural Boundaries: Learning to Engage Islam and Muslims, Emmie Baine Lecture, 42nd Annual Women's Symposium, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, March 1, 2007.

2006

Four Stages of Denial or my On-Again, Off-Again Affair with Feminism: Response to Margot Badran, Feminism beyond East and West: new gender talk and practice in global Islam, Ithaca College, October 23, 2006.

"One Father, Three Dysfunctional Offspring: On the 'Problematic' Aspects of Monotheism," Snowstar Institute for Religion, Toronto, Canada, June 4, 2006.

“Reading the Qur’an: Challenges and Possibilities for Muslim Women,” Workshop convenor, Symposium on Gender, Race, Islam, and the “War on Terror,” Simon Fraser University, Canada,
May 11-13, 2006.

“The Qur’an and Gender: Sexuality and Women’s Status in Islam,” St. Bartholomew’s Church, New York City, April 24-25, 2006.

“Believing Women” in Islam, lecture, Swarthmore College, April 14, 2006.

“Women, Politics, and Islam: Rereading Islamic Sources,” Middlebury College, April 6, 2006.

“Sacred Knowledge and Women’s Rights in Islam,” Columbia University, March 29, 2006.

“Women in Islam:  Rethinking texts, traditions, and reason,” University of Oregon, March 2, 2006.

2005

"Qur’anic Hermeneutics and Muslim Women’s Liberation,” International Congress on Islamic
Feminism, Barcelona, Spain, October 29, 2005.  

The Family and Marriage: Muslims in the 21st Century, Los Angeles Latino Muslim Association, Los Angeles, California, April 16, 2005.

Media Reflections: Ignorance of a Hegemonic Imagination, Occupied Spaces Symposium, Ithaca College, April 8, 2005.

Women’s Rights and Role in Islam, DePaul Law School, March 7, 2005.

Women in Islam: Facts and Perceptions, Conference on Muslim Women’s Health Needs, University of Illinois at Chicago, March 4, 2005.

Interview: “The Qur’an Doesn’t Support Patriarchy”, Naufil Shahrukh talks to Asma Barlas on her feminist interpretations of Islam, with special reference to the post-9/11 world. Published in ABC,
The Nation, Pakistan, February 2005.

2004

Mainstreaming Extremism, Muslim Public Affairs Council, Fourth Annual Convention, Long Beach, California, December 18, 2004 .

Christian and Muslim Women in Conversation About Scripture, Hartford Seminary, December 3, 2004.

Teaching about Women and Islam, AMEWS Roundtable, MESA, San Francisco, November 21, 2004.

Art Across Borders: Celebrating Humanity or Cannibalizing It?, Exhibition of Iraqi and Palestinian Art, Ithaca College, October 28, 2004.

Towards a Theory of Gender Equality in Muslim Societies, CSID Annual Conference, Washington, D.C., May 29, 2004.

Globalizing Equality: Muslim Women, Theology, and Feminisms, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., March 26, 2004.

The Excesses of Moderation, Colloquium on ‘Moderate’ Islam, University of Utah, Feb 21-22, 2004.

The Qur’an, Sexual Equality, and Feminism, University of Toronto, January 12, 2004.

2003

Muslims in the US: Burning Issues of the Day, SRF Forum, California, May 24, 2003.

A Requiem for Voicelessness: Pakistanis and Muslims in the US, Homeland Insecurity: Attack on Civil Liberties & Domestic Racism, Cornell University, April 12, 2003.

Islam, Women, and Equality: Reading the Qur’an for Liberation, Ithaca College, March 19, 2003.

Determining Islamic Authority in North America, Harvard Divinity School, March 8, 2003.

Religion and Our Response to Violence, Cornell University, February 13, 2003.

2002

Challenging Patriarchal Interpretations of Islam, Anderberg Lecture given at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, November 7, 2002.

9/11, the Academy, and Renewal, Ithaca College, September 12, 2002.

Tradition and Modern Life: Changing Roles of Women , digital video conference with US Embassy, New Delhi, 13 August, 2002.

"Fundamentalism & Modernity," Robert L. Bernstein Symposium, Yale Law School, April 13, 2002.

"Will the 'Real' Islam Please Stand Up?", Yale University, February 21, 2002.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day: Recontextualizing King , Ithaca College on 21 January 2002.

2001-1999

"Islam, the Middle East, and Terrorism: What we Are and Aren't Talking About", "Making Sense of September 11," Ithaca College, November 8, 2001.

"On Interpretation and Exceptionalism", Ithaca College, October 29, 2001.

Introducing bell hooks, Ithaca College, October 3, 2001.

Feminists, Stereotyping, and Liberation - Films on Islam: In my Father’s House & Voices of the Morning , Park Auditorium, Ithaca College, November 8, 1999.