Kecia Ali

Kecia Ali (born 1972) is an American scholar of Islam who focuses on the study of Islamic Jurisprudence (fiqh) and Women in Early and Modern Islam. She is currently an Associate Professor of Religion at Boston University. She previously held a position at Brandeis University's Feminist Sexual Ethics Project, and was a research associate and postdoctoral fellow at Brandeis University (2001–2003) and Harvard Divinity School.

Education

Ali received her BA at Stanford University in History and Feminist Studies in 1993. Then, in 2000, she received her M.A. in Religion and in 2002 her Ph.D. in Religion both at Duke University. She converted to Islam while in college.

Work

Ali has written a considerable amount relating to the topic of marriage, womanhood, and their connection with, and development alongside, Islam. Her major works include Sexual Ethics and Islam: Feminist Reflections on Qur'an, Hadith, and Jurisprudence, Marriage and Slavery in Early Islam, Imam Shafi‘i: Scholar and Saint, and most recently, The Lives of Muhammad. Ali has also co-authored two books, including Women in Latin America and the Caribbean and Islam: The Key Concepts. As a scholar, she is sensitive to the way the Western World perceives women in Islam and says that in Islamic studies "Issues of gender are very much on everybody's minds."

Sexual Ethics and Islam: Feminist Reflections on Qur'an, Hadith, and Jurisprudence was called a "challenging contribution" to Islamic history by Comparative Islamic Studies. Marriage and Slavery in Early Islam was called a "meticulous, pellucid, authoritative and very focused survey of early Islamic marriage law" by the Journal of the American Academy of Religion. The Journal of Law & Religion calls Marriage and Slavery a "valuable contribution to the fields of legal, historical and gender studies." The Lives of Muhammad was reviewed favorably by Publishers Weekly.