Egyptian-American scholar on Islam, feminism, and the veil

Leila Ahmed is the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School, and was the first professor of women’s studies ever appointed at HDS. Her earlier works that established her voice in the discussion of gender in contemporary Islam were Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate (1993) and A Border Passage: From Cairo to America—A Woman’s Journey (2000), and her most recent book, A Quiet Revolution: The Veil’s Resurgence, from the Middle East to America (2011), won the Grawemeyer Award in Religion in 2012. Here she talks to MRB editor Ingrid Lilly on a recent visit to Louisville.

※Special thanks to the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary for hosting this interview. Produced and Directed by Charles Halton.