ISA Regional Guest Lecture: Nuril Hidayah
IN COOPERATION WITH THE AUSTRIAN INDONESIAN SOCIETY
Gender issues continue to attract significant scholarly attention due to their pervasive impact on various facets of human life, their complex interplay with other social categories, and the ongoing quest for more equitable and just societies. Religious texts, including the Hadith (records of Prophet Muhammad’s sayings and deeds), are sometimes perceived as obstacles to gender equality. However, this is not a universal view, and many contextual approaches have been initiated to foster a better understanding of the Hadith. These obstacles typically arise from literal interpretations and manifest in a limited number of fatwas that restrict women’s participation in public life, and in interpretations that view women as second-class citizens. Nuril Hidayah’s research delves into the Hadith using an anthropolinguistic lens, uncovering nuances and complexities often overlooked in traditional interpretations. It employs this approach to analyze the lexicon related to women within the two most authoritative compilations of Hadith, known as Shahih Bukhari and Shahih Muslim. This analysis aims to provide a more comprehensive understanding of how women were portrayed in early Islam, revealing the potential for social reform through religious teachings and uncovering the mindset of its early recipients through language analysis.
Short Bio
Nuril Hidayah is a doctoral student at the State Islamic University Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta, Indonesia, and a guest researcher at the ISA. Her research focuses on the portrayal of women in early Islam, based on records of life found in traditional Islamic texts passed down through generations.