Women
Family: People and stages of life · 225 entries
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Person
Halima al-Sa'diyya
c. 540 (approx.) CEA Bedouin woman of Banu Sa'd who nursed the infant Muhammad in the desert for several years, as was the Meccan custom, and is remembered in tradition as his foster-mother.Khadija bint Khuwaylid
c. 555 CEA wealthy Meccan merchant who was the Prophet Muhammad's first wife and, in tradition, the first person to believe in his message.Sumayya bint Khayyat
c. 560 CEAn elderly woman of the first converts, tortured in Mecca for her faith; the tradition counts her the first martyr of Islam, mother of the Companion Ammar ibn Yasir.Umm Ayman (Baraka bint Tha'laba)
c. 560 (approx.) CEAn Abyssinian freedwoman of the Prophet's family who cared for him as a child and again after his mother's death, and is counted among the Companions.Umm Jamil
c. 565 CEWife of Abu Lahab and sister of Abu Sufyan; remembered in the sources for harassing the Prophet — the 'carrier of wood' of Qur'an 111 in the commentators' reading.Hind bint Utba
c. 575 CEDaughter of the Meccan elder Utba ibn Rabi'a and wife of Abu Sufyan: the sira's most vivid figure of Meccan defiance at Uhud, who converted with the conquest of Mecca; mother of the caliph Mu'awiya.Amina bint Wahb
The Prophet's mother, of the Zuhra clan; she took her six-year-old son to Yathrib to visit his father's grave, fell ill on the road home, and died at al-Abwa between Mecca and Medina.Nusayba bint Ka'b (Umm Umara)
c. 590 CEAn Ansari woman of Medina who pledged at Aqaba and fought at Uhud shielding the Prophet with sword and shield — the tradition's most famous woman warrior of the first generation.Sajah bint al-Harith
c. 590 CEA woman of Tamim by her father and Taghib by her mother who claimed prophecy in rhymed speech, marched an army toward Medina, then turned to Yamama and joined Musaylima — before returning to Islam and living into the caliphate.Umm Salama (Hind bint Abi Umayya)
c. 590 (approx.) CEA wife of the Prophet remembered for her counsel at Hudaybiyya and for the hundreds of hadith transmitted on her authority in Sunni tradition.Fatima bint Muhammad
c. 605 CEThe youngest daughter of the Prophet and Khadija and wife of Ali ibn Abi Talib; mother of Hasan and Husayn and a central figure of Ahl al-Bayt in both Sunni and Shia tradition.Hafsa bint Umar
c. 605 CEA wife of the Prophet and daughter of Umar ibn al-Khattab, remembered in Sunni tradition as the keeper of the collected Qur'anic codex.Safiyya bint Huyayy
c. 610 CEA woman of the Jewish tribe Banu Nadir who was taken captive at Khaybar, then freed and married to the Prophet, becoming one of the Mothers of the Believers.Aisha bint Abi Bakr
c. 613 CEA wife of the Prophet and daughter of Abu Bakr; one of the most prolific transmitters of hadith in Sunni tradition, whose role is viewed differently across the traditions.Ruqayya bint Muhammad
A daughter of the Prophet and wife of Uthman ibn Affan; she emigrated with him to Abyssinia and then to Medina, fell ill as the Prophet set out for Badr, and died the day Zayd ibn Haritha arrived with the news of the victory.Asma' bint Marwan
A woman of Banu Umayya ibn Zayd married to Yazid ibn Zayd of Banu Khatma, with five grown sons; Ibn Ishaq says she showed hypocrisy after Abu Afak's killing and composed verses reviling Islam and its people and inciting against the Prophet, which Hassan answered; Umayr ibn Adi al-Khatmi killed her at night in her house after the Prophet said 'is there no one to deal with the daughter of Marwan for me?'Zaynab bint Ali
c. 626 CE · c. 5 AH†Granddaughter of the Prophet through Fatima and Ali; a survivor of Karbala whose accounts and defiance made her a central voice of her family in tradition.Zaynab bint Khuzayma
A Mother of the Believers called 'Umm al-Masakin' (mother of the poor) for feeding and giving to them; the Prophet married her after Hafsa, she stayed with him some months and died in his lifetime; her earlier husband is disputed: Abdullah ibn Jahsh, martyred at Uhud, or al-Tufayl and then Ubayda, sons of al-Harith.Zaynab bint Muhammad
The Prophet's eldest daughter, married to Abu al-As ibn al-Rabi; she gave him protection in Medina, the Prophet returned her to him after he embraced Islam, and she died at the start of 8 AH.Fatima bint Asad
Mother of Ali ibn Abi Talib and his brothers; in the sounder report she emigrated and died in Medina, and the Prophet shrouded her in his shirt.Umm Kulthum bint Muhammad
A daughter of the Prophet, married to Uthman ibn Affan after her sister Ruqayya's death in Rabi' al-Awwal 3 AH; she died in his house in Sha'ban 9 AH without bearing him children.Sara, mawla of Banu Abd al-Muttalib
A freedwoman attached to a family of Banu Abd al-Muttalib. In this edition she is named both as one of two possible carriers of Hatib's letter, and as a woman who had harmed the Prophet in Mecca — ordered killed at the conquest, then amnestied; years later a horse trampled her at al-Abtah in Umar's caliphate.Maria al-Qibtiyya
A woman sent to the Prophet in 7 AH by al-Muqawqis, the ruler of Alexandria, together with her sister Sirin; she embraced Islam, bore him Ibrahim, and died in Muharram 16 AH in Umar's caliphate.Zaynab bint Jahsh
A Mother of the Believers, whose mother Umayma was the Prophet's aunt; she was married to Zayd ibn Haritha and then to the Prophet, and a verse in sura al-Ahzab was revealed about her; she died in 20 AH, the first of his wives to die after him.Umm Haram bint Milhan
Maternal aunt of Anas ibn Malik, whom the Prophet used to visit at Quba; in her hadith he saw people of his community sailing the sea. She married Ubada ibn al-Samit and died on the Cyprus expedition when she fell from her mount.Umm Hani' bint Abi Talib
A cousin of the Prophet, named Fakhita (also given as Fatima or Hind); wife of Hubayra ibn Amr al-Makhzumi, who fled to Najran on the day Mecca was taken; she narrated hadith found in the six collections.Sawda bint Zam'a
Mother of the Believers; among the early converts who migrated to Abyssinia, and the first woman the Prophet married after the death of Khadija, in Shawwal of the tenth year of prophethood.Fatima al-Fihri
c. 800 CE · c. 184 AH†Fatima al-Fihri.Abida Parveen
1954 CE · 1373 AH†The foremost female voice of Pakistani Sufi song — sings Shah Abdul Latif and Bulleh Shah at Sindh's shrines.Mona Haydar
1988 CE · 1408 AH†The Syrian-American poet-rapper of 'Hijabi' (2017) — a prominent Muslim feminist voice in American music.A'isha al-Ba'uniyya
Draft card for A'isha bint Yusuf al-Ba'uniyya of Damascus, the sixteenth-century Sufi poetess with works on mysticism and praise poems, d. 1516; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.The Ghamidi woman
A woman of the Ghamid tribe who came to the Prophet in 9 AH and confessed to fornication; he turned her away repeatedly, deferred the penalty until she bore and weaned her child, and she was stoned — he said of her repentance that, apportioned, it would suffice seventy people of Medina.al-Jawniyya
A woman of Kinda contracted to the Prophet but the marriage was not consummated; the sira literature disagrees on her name and the details, and al-Raheeq records only her well-known byname.al-Khansa' (Tumadir bint Amr)
The elegiac poet of Banu Sulaym (Qays 'Aylan), famous for her laments for her brothers Sakhr and Mu'awiya killed before Islam; she embraced Islam with her sons and gave them to the cause — the four were martyred at al-Qadisiyya, and she was heard saying that God's honouring her with their martyrdom comforted her.al-Khansa' bint Khidham
An Ansari woman of Banu Amr ibn Awf whose hadith is established in the Muwatta': her father married her off against her wishes, she went to the Prophet and he annulled the marriage; she later married Abu Lubaba ibn Abd al-Mundhir and bore him al-Sa'ib.al-Rubayyi' bint Mu'awwidh
A Companion of Banu Adi ibn al-Najjar; she gave the pledge under the tree, narrated that women campaigned with the Prophet giving water, serving and tending the wounded, described his ablution, and told of her wedding day when girls played the tambourine.al-Sayyida al-Mu'izziyya
Draft card for al-Sayyida al-Mu'izziyya, the tenth-century principal consort of the Fatimid caliph al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah, d. 995; the source entry is not yet checked on the page.al-Shayma bint al-Harith al-Sa'diyya
A woman of Banu Sa'd ibn Bakr of Hawazin and foster-sister of the Prophet through nursing; taken among the Hunayn captives, she made herself known to him, he recognized her by a mark and honored her, spread his cloak for her to sit upon, then manumitted her and returned her to her people.al-Shifa' bint Abdullah
One of the first emigrants, she embraced Islam before the Hijra and gave her pledge; counted among the wise and virtuous of women, the Prophet visited her and took his midday rest at her house, she taught Hafsa to write, and Umar valued her opinion and at times put her in charge of something in the market.Amina bint al-Majlisi
Draft card for Amina Begum bint Muhammad Taqi al-Majlisi, the seventeenth-century Safavid jurist; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.Arwa bint Abd al-Muttalib
An aunt of the Prophet; she was married to Umayr ibn Wahb and bore Tulayb, then to Kalda ibn Abd Manaf and bore Arwa; Ibn Ishaq says none of the Prophet's aunts embraced Islam except Safiyya, and Ibn Hajar answers with Arwa's story, her embracing Islam after her son Tulayb did.Asma' bint Marthad
An Ansari woman of Banu Haritha; Abu Umar mentions her and says her hadith is not sound because Haram ibn Uthman, who is weak in everyone's view, is alone in narrating it; Ibn Sa'd says she embraced Islam and pledged and that her husband was al-Dahhak ibn Khalifa.Asma' bint Yazid ibn al-Sakan
A Companion of Banu Abd al-Ashhal, cousin of Mu'adh ibn Jabal, known by the kunya Umm Salama and called 'the orator of the women'; she gave her pledge to the Prophet among a group of women, was at al-Yarmuk, and killed nine Byzantines with a tent pole there and lived on for a long time.Atika bint Abd al-Muttalib
An aunt of the Prophet and wife of Abu Umayya ibn al-Mughira, the father of Umm Salama, to whom she bore Abdullah and Quraiba; known for the dream she had three nights before Badr. Whether she embraced Islam is disputed.عاتكة بنت مرة السلمية
Hashim ibn Abd Manaf's mother: Atika bint Murra of Banu Sulaym — one of the three Sulami 'Atikas among the Prophet's grandmothers.عاتكة بنت يخلد القرشية
Atika bint Yakhluḍ ibn al-Nadr ibn Kinana — the senior Qurashi 'Atika in the chain of the Prophet's ancestresses.برة بنت عبد العزى القرشية
Amina's mother — the Prophet's maternal grandmother: Barra bint Abd al-Uzza ibn Abd al-Dar ibn Qusayy, a Qurayshite.Busra bint Safwan
A Qurashi woman of Banu Asad, niece of Waraqa ibn Nawfal; al-Shafi'i said she had an early precedence and an emigration; she narrated from the Prophet and Marwan ibn al-Hakam, Urwa and Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib narrated from her; among her hadith is the one on ablution after touching the private part.Dubaa bint Amir
A Companion of Banu Amir ibn Sa'sa'a who embraced Islam early at Mecca; remembered for crying out to her clan in defence of the Prophet at Ukaz when Bajr ibn Firas spooked his camel so it threw him, and for enduring her people's persecution.Durra bint Abi Lahab
A cousin of the Prophet who embraced Islam and emigrated; reports with weak chains say women of Banu Zurayq taunted her over her father and the Prophet, angered, said that his intercession reaches his kin.Fakhitah bint Abi Hashim
Draft card for Fakhitah bint Abi Hashim (Umm Hashim), the seventh-century wife of the Umayyad caliph Yazid ibn Mu'awiya, d. 691; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.Fakhr-un-Nissa
Draft card for Fakhr-un-Nissa Begum, the eldest child of the Mughal emperor Babur; the source entry is not yet checked on the page.Fartana
One of the two singing slave-girls of Abdullah ibn Khatal in Mecca who performed lampoons against the Prophet; proscribed on the day of the Conquest, one was killed while the other fled, sought protection, and embraced Islam.Fatima bint Abd al-Malik
Draft card for Fatima bint Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, the eighth-century Umayyad princess and wife of Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.Fatima bint al-Khattab
Umar ibn al-Khattab's sister and Sa'id ibn Zayd's wife; among the earliest Muslims of the secret call, which the book counts among the first women to believe.Fatima bint Amr al-Makhzumiyya
Mother of Abdullah, the Prophet's father, and so his paternal grandmother; of Banu Makhzum, daughter of Amr ibn Aidh ibn Imran ibn Makhzum ibn Yaqaza ibn Murra, which made Abdullah's maternal uncles the Makhzumis who prevented his sacrifice; al-Baladhuri names her mother as Fatima bint Abdullah ibn Rizam of Hawazin.Fatima bint Qays al-Fihriyya
A sister of al-Dahhak ibn Qays and one of the first emigrants, known for beauty and intelligence; divorced by Abu Bakr ibn Hafs al-Makhzumi, she married Usama ibn Zayd on the Prophet's advice, narrated the story of the Jassasa, and the council of the Shura met in her house after Umar's killing.فاطمة بنت سعد الأزدية
Mother of Qusayy ibn Kilab: Fatima bint Sa'd b. Sayl of the Azd Shanu'a, her mother a Khuza'i — one of the Yamani Fawatim in the Prophet's reported words 'I am the son of the Fatimas and the Atikas'.Fatma Sultan, daughter of Murad II
Draft card for Fatma Khatun, the fifteenth-century Ottoman princess, daughter of Sultan Murad II; the source entry is not yet checked on the page.Fitnat Hanim
Draft card for Zubeyda Fitnat Hanim, the eighteenth-century Ottoman poet of Istanbul, d. 1780; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.Gohar Sultan Begum
Draft card for Gohar Sultan Begum, the sixteenth-century Safavid princess, daughter of Shah Tahmasp I, d. 1577; the source entry is not yet checked on the page.Hamna bint Jahsh
Sister of Zaynab bint Jahsh, wife of Mus'ab ibn Umayr, who was killed at Uhud, and then of Talha ibn Ubaydullah; she was at Uhud giving water to the thirsty and tending the wounded, and she narrated the hadith on abnormal bleeding.Juwayriya bint al-Harith
A Mother of the Believers, daughter of the chief of Banu al-Mustaliq; she fell among the captives at al-Muraysi' and arranged her own manumission, the Prophet paid it and married her, and people released the Mustaliq captives they held, so that a hundred households were freed through her.Khadijeh Begum, Aq Qoyunlu
Draft card for Khadijeh Begum, the sixteenth-century Aq Qoyunlu princess; the source entry is not yet checked on the page.Khas Mahal
Draft card for Khas Mahal, the Mughal empress consort of Jahangir in the seventeenth century, d. 1627; the source entry is not yet checked on the page.Khawla bint Tha'laba
An Ansari Companion who complained to the Prophet of her husband Aws ibn al-Samit's zihar and laid out her case and her children's, so the opening verses of Surat al-Mujadila were revealed concerning her, carrying the expiation ruling; Umar ibn al-Khattab once greeted her and told the people she was the woman whose plea God heard from above seven heavens.Khuwayla bint Hakim al-Sulamiyya
An early Muslim woman from Banu Sulaym, wife of Uthman ibn Maz'un; she accompanied the Muslim camp during the siege of Ta'if and requested the jewellery of the women of Thaqif upon the fortress's anticipated fall.Ku'ayba bint Sa'd
An Aslami Companion among the women nurses who tended the wounded Muslims after the Battle of Uhud; she treated a man struck by an arrow in the arm until he recovered.Layla bint al-Khatim
From Banu Zafar of the Aws, added by Abu Ali al-Jayyani as a supplement to al-Isti'ab; reports say she offered herself to the Prophet who accepted and then she asked to be released and he released her; Ibn Sa'd counts her among the first women of the Ansar to pledge to the Prophet, and she was called 'the lion's meal'.Layla bint Qanif al-Thaqafiyya
Layla bint Qanif al-Thaqafiyya, a Companion who was among the women who washed Umm Kulthum, daughter of the Prophet, and who described the order in which her shrouding garments were handed over.Maymuna bint al-Harith
A Mother of the Believers and sister of Umm al-Fadl Lubaba; she was named Barra and the Prophet called her Maymuna; he married her at the 'umrat al-qada' in 7 AH, and Ibn Sa'd says she was the last wife he took whom he consummated with; whether he was in ihram at the contract is disputed.Mehr-un-Nissa
Draft card for Mehr-un-Nissa Begum, the seventeenth-century Mughal princess, d. 1706; the source entry is not yet checked on the page.Syeda Momena Khatun
Draft card for Momena Khatun, the princess of the Bengal Sultanate; the source entry is not yet checked on the page.Nafisa bint Munya
Khadija's confidante to whom she disclosed her wish to marry Muhammad; Nafisa broached the matter with him, he consented, and the match proceeded through their uncles.رَطية بنت كعب
Ratiya bint Ka'b of Quraysh, an ancestress through Asad ibn Abd al-Uzza; tradition identifies her as the woman meant by 'she who undid her spun yarn strand by strand'.Rayhana bint Zayd
A captive of Banu Qurayza or Banu al-Nadir; the reports differ on whether the Prophet freed and married her and put the veil on her or she remained in his possession; she died before the Prophet, or on his return from the Farewell Pilgrimage, and was buried at al-Baqi'.Rufayda al-Aslamiyya
An Ansari Companion of Banu Aslam remembered for her medical tent pitched in the Prophet's mosque; the wounded Sa'd ibn Mu'adh was placed under her care after he was struck by an arrow at the Battle of the Trench, and she nursed the sick and injured from her own means.Hatim al-Ta'i's daughter (Saffana)
Hatim al-Ta'i's daughter and Adi's sister; the Prophet's cavalry took her among the captives of Tayy after Adi fled to Syria, and three times she addressed the Prophet, the father is dead and the envoy absent, be gracious to me, until he released her, clothed her, mounted her and gave her provision. She joined her brother in Syria, rebuked him, then advised him to hasten to the Prophet. The sira leaves her unnamed; al-Suhayli, as the editors report, identifies her as Saffana, Hatim's only known daughter.Saffanah bint Hatim al-Ta'i
Draft card for Saffanah bint Hatim al-Ta'i, the seventh-century daughter of Hatim al-Ta'i; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.Safiyya bint Abd al-Muttalib
An aunt of the Prophet, mother of al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam and full sister of Hamza; she embraced Islam and emigrated with her son, a report tells of her killing a man who spied on the women's fort at the Trench, and she lived into Umar's caliphate.Safiyya bint Shayba
Whether she was a Companion is disputed, and the view that she never saw the Prophet is called the most remote because her hadith is established in al-Bukhari in suspended form; she narrated from Aisha, Umm Habiba, Umm Salama and Asma, and Ibn Hibban counts her among the trustworthy Successors.Salma al-Qabila
A Companion, wife of Abu Rafi' the Prophet's freedman; she was the household midwife who delivered Fatima's children — al-Hasan, al-Husayn, Zaynab and Umm Kulthum — having earlier served Khadija, and lived on after the Prophet's death.Salmā bint ʿAmr
A woman of Banū ʿAdī ibn al-Najjār of Yathrib; Hāshim’s wife and ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib’s mother, who raised the boy at Yathrib.Salma bint Attab
A woman poet of Tamim who spoke two verses on the day of Uyayna ibn Hisn's raid on Banu al-Anbar, lamenting the evil that befell Adi ibn Jundab, the enemies closing in from every side and the absence of their might and fortune; nothing else of her is known from Ibn Ishaq.Sarah
Ibrahim's wife; Pharaoh plotted against her and God turned his plot back, and recognising her closeness to God he gave her Hajar as a servant, whom Sarah gave to Ibrahim in marriage; after Ismail's birth her jealousy led Ibrahim to take Hajar and the child to the Hijaz, in al-Raheeq al-Makhtum's account after al-Bukhari and Rahma lil-Alamin.Shuja al-Khwarazmi
Draft card for Shuja al-Khwarazmi, the ninth-century mother of the Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil; the source entry is not yet checked on the page.Strongilah
Draft card for Strongilah (Esther Kira), the sixteenth-century Jewish merchant and kira in the Ottoman court of Istanbul, executed 1548; the source entry is not yet checked on the page.Thuwayba
The freedwoman of Abu Lahab who first suckled the Prophet after his mother, with the milk of her son Masruh; she had nursed Hamza before him and Abu Salama after him.Umama al-Muzayriyya
A woman who spoke two verses on the killing of Abu Afak, addressing him: that he gave the lie to God's religion and to the man Ahmad, and that a Muslim had granted him a thrust at the end of the night which he should take in his old age; nothing more is known of her from Ibn Ishaq.Umama bint Abi al-As
A granddaughter of the Prophet through his daughter Zaynab, whom he used to carry on his shoulder in prayer; she married Ali ibn Abi Talib after Fatima, and then al-Mughira ibn Nawfal.Umayma bint Abd al-Muttalib
An aunt of the Prophet, married before Islam to Hujayr ibn Ri'ab al-Asadi (as printed in this edition), mother of Abdullah, Ubaydullah, Abu Ahmad, Zaynab and Hamna; her Islam is disputed.Umm al-Ala' al-Ansariyya
An Ansari Companion among those who pledged; she narrated in the two collections the story of Uthman ibn Maz'un's lodging in her house when the Ansar divided the Muhajirun among them and his death there, her seeing a flowing spring for him and the Prophet's words 'That is his deed'; Ibn Hajar judges her the mother of Kharija ibn Zayd ibn Thabit.Umm al-Fadl Lubaba bint al-Harith
The wife of al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib and mother of Abdullah ibn Abbas, sister of the Mother of the Believers Maymuna; Ibn Sa'd says she was the first woman to believe after Khadija, and the Prophet said of her sisters 'The four sisters are believers'; he used to visit her and she was among the women who bore illustrious children.Umm Atiyya al-Ansariyya
An Ansari Companion named Nusayba, who joined seven campaigns with the Prophet looking after the fighters' baggage, and narrated in the two collections on washing the dead, on women going out to the Eid prayers, and on the women's pledge not to wail; she came to Basra and stayed at the palace of Banu Khalaf.أم حبيب بنت أسد
Umm Habib bint Asad ibn Abd al-Uzza ibn Qusayy — a Qurashi ancestress of Amina through Barra.Umm Habiba Ramlah bint Abi Sufyan
A daughter of Abu Sufyan ibn Harb and a wife of the Prophet — one of the Mothers of the Believers. When her father came to Medina to renew the truce she folded away the Prophet's bedding rather than let him sit on it.Umm Kulthum bint Ali
A daughter of Ali ibn Abi Talib and Fatima, the Prophet's daughter, born in the Prophet's lifetime; Ibn Hajar reports accounts of Umar ibn al-Khattab's proposal to her, her dower and her children Zayd and Ruqayya, and then her marriages after him to sons of Ja'far ibn Abi Talib.Umm Kulthum bint Uqba
An Umayyad Companion who embraced Islam early and gave her pledge; she emigrated to Medina alone during the truce of al-Hudaybiyya, and when her two brothers came to demand her the Prophet did not return her; she married in turn Zayd ibn Haritha, al-Zubayr, Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf and Amr ibn al-As.Umm Mubashshir bint al-Bara' ibn Ma'rur
An Ansari woman, daughter of al-Bara' ibn Ma'rur; Jabir ibn Abdullah narrated from her the hadith that none of the people of the tree will enter the Fire, and her words are recorded at the Prophet's last illness, where she said she blamed her son Bishr's death only on the poisoned sheep he had eaten with the Prophet.Umm Muni' (Asma bint Amr)
A Sulami Companion, mother of Mu'adh ibn Jabal; she was the second woman at the second pledge of Aqaba alongside Nusayba bint Ka'b (Umm Umara), and the tradition also counts her among the Muslims who witnessed Khaybar.Umm Musa, the mother of Musa
Umm Musa, the mother of Musa, as Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy presents her in the series 'Al Fawzu Al Moubeen': her command to cast her infant, God's reassurance to her, what was revealed to her, and a question on whether her heart was sound from the start.Umm Qays bint Mihsan
A sister of Ukkasha ibn Mihsan, she embraced Islam early at Mecca, gave her pledge and emigrated; she narrated hadith in the two collections, including the one about her small son who had not yet eaten food, and in one story the Prophet said 'May her life be long', after which it was said no woman was known to have lived as long as she did.Umm Ruman
The wife of Abu Bakr and mother of Abd al-Rahman and Aisha; she embraced Islam early, gave her pledge and emigrated, and died in the Prophet's lifetime, in Dhu al-Hijja 6 AH on the sounder view; the Prophet went down into her grave and asked forgiveness for her.Umm Sa'd bint Sa'd ibn al-Rabi'
Daughter of Sa'd ibn al-Rabi', who was killed at Uhud while she was in the womb; she grew up an orphan in Abu Bakr's care and married Zayd ibn Thabit, bearing him Kharija, Sa'd, Uthman, Sulayman and Umm Zayd; a report on the inheritance of an unborn child is linked to her.Umm Sharik
A Companion of Banu Amir ibn Lu'ayy whose name and lineage are disputed; some reports say she embraced Islam at Mecca, called the women of Quraysh in secret and was tortured, and that she offered herself to the Prophet, who did not accept, and she never married; Ibn Hajar points out the weakness of some chains.Umm Sharik al-Dawsiyya
A Companion of Banu Daws of al-Azd; she embraced Islam and stayed among her people at Dhu al-Khalasa, enduring their pressure until some of her persecutors themselves converted; after her husband Abu al-Fakr died she offered herself to the Prophet, and she is reported to be the 'believing woman who gives herself to the Prophet' of Surat al-Ahzab. Distinct from Umm Sharik al-Qurashiyya al-Amiriyya.Umm Sulaym bint Milhan
The mother of Anas, the Prophet's servant, known by her kunya with her name disputed; she embraced Islam among the earliest of the Ansar, her first husband Malik left for Syria angry and died there, Abu Talha proposed to her before he was Muslim and his Islam became her dower; she campaigned with the Prophet and carried a dagger at Hunayn.Umm Sunbula al-Aslamiyya
A Companion of Aslam about whom Aisha related that she brought the Prophet milk as a gift; Aisha remarked he had forbidden eating from bedouin, and he said 'They are not bedouin; they are the people of our desert and we are the people of their town, and when we call them they answer.'Umm Waraqa bint Abdullah
An Ansari Companion who had read the Qur'an; she asked to go out with the Prophet to Badr to nurse the sick and he told her to stay in her house since God would grant her martyrdom, so she was called 'the martyr'; he allowed her a muezzin in her house, and a male and a female slave of hers killed her and Umar had them crucified.Umm Ziyad al-Ashja'iyya
A Companion of Ashja' who went out with the Prophet on the Khaybar campaign with five other women; the Prophet asked 'With whose leave did you come out?' and they answered that they had come to treat the wounded, hand out arrows and give out barley drink, and dates were apportioned to them.Umm Zufar
A tall black woman who complained to the Prophet that she suffered seizures and her body was exposed; he gave her the choice between patience, with Paradise, and a prayer for cure, and she chose patience and asked that she not be exposed, so he prayed for that; Ibn Abbas said 'This woman is of the people of Paradise', and Ata' saw her on the steps of the Kaaba.
Event
The Prophet's marriage to Khadija
c. 595 CEThe marriage of Muhammad and Khadija bint Khuwaylid, arranged after her trade trip under his management to Syria; the book gives her dowry as twenty young camels and her age as forty, and notes she remained his only wife until she died.The Prophet's marriage to Sawda bint Zam'a
c. 619 CEThe marriage of Prophet Muhammad to Sawda bint Zam'a in Shawwal of the tenth year of prophethood, his first marriage after the death of Khadija.The marriage of Fatima and Ali
c. 624 CE · 2 AHThe Prophet's daughter Fatima married his cousin Ali ibn Abi Talib in Medina, from which the Prophet's line of descendants continued.Umayr ibn Adi al-Khatmi's mission to kill Asma' bint Marwan
c. 625 CE · c. 3 AHIbn Ishaq relates from Abdullah ibn al-Harith ibn al-Fudayl from his father that Asma' bint Marwan, of Banu Umayya ibn Zayd and married to Yazid ibn Zayd of Banu Khatma, showed hypocrisy after Abu Afak's killing and composed verses reviling Islam and its people and inciting against the Prophet, which Hassan ibn Thabit answered; when it reached the Prophet he said 'is there no one to deal with the daughter of Marwan for me?' Umayr ibn Adi al-Khatmi heard him, went to her house that night and killed her, and the Prophet told him 'you have helped God and His Messenger, Umayr', and that no two goats would butt heads over her. Ibn Ishaq says that day was the first on which Islam became strong among Banu Khatma.The Incident of the Slander (Hadith al-Ifk)
c. December 627 CE · Sha'ban 6 AHOn the return from the Expedition of al-Muraysi', Aisha was accidentally left behind when searching for a lost necklace and was escorted back to Medina by Safwan ibn al-Mu'attal; Abdullah ibn Ubayy orchestrated a malicious slander campaign that troubled the community for a month until verses of Surat al-Nur established her innocence.Zayd ibn Haritha's raid on Banu Fazara and the killing of Umm Qirfa
c. 628 CE · c. 6 AHZayd ibn Haritha raided Wadi al-Qura and met Banu Fazara; some of his men were hit, he was carried off wounded from among the dead, and Ward ibn Amr ibn Madash was killed, so Zayd swore no water would touch his head from major impurity until he raided Fazara. When he recovered the Prophet sent him with an army; he slaughtered them at Wadi al-Qura, Qays ibn al-Musahhar al-Ya'muri killed Mas'ada ibn Hakama ibn Malik ibn Hudhayfa ibn Badr, and Umm Qirfa, Fatima bint Rabi'a ibn Badr, an old woman married to Malik ibn Hudhayfa, was captured with a daughter and Abdullah ibn Mas'ada. Zayd ordered Qays to kill Umm Qirfa, 'and he killed her violently', and they brought her daughter and Ibn Mas'ada to the Prophet; the daughter fell to Salama ibn al-Akwa', the Prophet asked for her and gave her to his maternal uncle Hazn ibn Abi Wahb. The episode is contested and carries perspectives.The custody of Hamza's daughter
c. March 629 CE · Dhu al-Qa'da 7 AHUmm Hani gives protection to two men on the day of the conquest
c. January 630 CE · Ramadan 8 AHThe capture and release of Hatim al-Ta'i's daughter
c. 631 CE · c. 9 AHA cavalry force of the Prophet took Hatim's daughter among the captives of Tayy after her brother Adi fled to Syria, and she was held in the enclosure by the mosque door. For three days she addressed the Prophet, the father is dead and the envoy absent, be gracious to me, until Ali ibn Abi Talib signalled her to speak again; the Prophet released her, told her to wait for trustworthy kin, then clothed her, mounted her and provisioned her, and she joined her brother in Syria.The Unleashing of Egypt's Slaves in al-Fustat, 411
c. February 1021 CE · Shawwal 411 AHOn a Tuesday, two nights before the end of Shawwal 411, a written placard appeared in Egypt, with slips scattered along the lanes asking the state to unleash the slaves in Egypt for three days. Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah feared it, as did the commanders and soothsayers, that they would burn Egypt, kill and plunder. So they let the slaves of Egypt take their camp, and the sultans' women pressed it until it weakened. The fighting lasted three days. People cried out to the slaves, saying that if their aims were achieved, nothing mighty or humble would remain unhumbled. Women, children and the city's notables gathered, crying out to the slaves, and [the spoils] were sold in the seized markets. Then al-Hakim went out himself, rode, halted before a line of them and called out 'Ya Aghatiyy', and they turned back. He had burned a third of Egypt, and a third of it had gone to plunder.Marriage to Zaynab bint Jahsh
c. Dhu al-Qa'da 5 AHThe Prophet married Zaynab bint Jahsh after Zayd ibn Haritha divorced her, in Dhu al-Qa'da 5 AH, abolishing by act the jahili adoption rule that had treated an adopted son's wife as a real son's wife; verses of sura al-Ahzab were revealed about it and the hypocrites spread propaganda around it.The Choice Offered to the Prophet's Wives
c. 9 AHWhen the Prophet's wives asked for a better standard of living amid the austerity of his household, the verse of choice was revealed (al-Ahzab 28-29): if you desire the life of this world and its adornment, come, I will provide for you and release you graciously; but if you desire Allah and His Messenger and the abode of the Hereafter, Allah has prepared a great reward for the doers of good among you. All of them chose Allah and His Messenger.
Work
Minaret
Aboulela's novel of a Sudanese diplomat's daughter turned London servant who finds Islam seriously in exile.A Thousand Splendid Suns
Hosseini's novel of Mariam and Laila — thirty years of Afghan women's lives through civil war and Taliban rule.The Jewel of Medina
Sherry Jones's novel about Aisha — Random House dropped it amid controversy before Beaufort published it; a case study in depicting the Prophet's household.Asma' bint Marwan's verses reviling the Ansar for obeying 'the stranger'
Four verses in which Asma' reviles Banu Malik, al-Nabit, Awf and Banu al-Khazraj: you obeyed a stranger of neither Murad nor Madhhij, hoping in him after the killing of your chiefs as one hopes for broth from a cooked pot; and she wishes for a proud man who would catch him unawares and cut off the hope of those who hope.Nisa' Hawl al-Rasul: Tarajim wa Qisas
A single-volume collection of biographies and stories covering the Prophet's mothers (Amina, Halima, Umm Ayman, Fatima bint Asad), his thirteen wives and Maria al-Qibtiyya, twenty-five female Companions, his four daughters and three granddaughters, in a simple narrative style; compiled by Muhammad Ali al-Qutb, Muhammad Umar al-Da'uq and Ahmad Abd al-Jawad al-Dumi.Salma bint Attab's two verses on the day of Banu al-Anbar
Two verses by Salma bint Attab on the day Uyayna ibn Hisn raided Banu al-Anbar: that Adi ibn Jundab met a steep and evil chasm, with enemies closing in from every side while its might and good fortune were absent.Umama al-Muzayriyya's two verses on the killing of Abu Afak
Two verses in which Umama addresses Abu Afak: you call God's religion and the man Ahmad a lie; by the life of him who fathered you, an evil issue; a true believer granted you a thrust at night's end: Abu Afak, take it in your old age.
Concept
Obstructing a marriage (adl): the guardian and the husband
In the lexicon, adl means to prevent, and the jurists use it of a guardian who prevents his ward's marriage, and in the case of divorce for ransom of a husband who harms his wife so that she will pay him back. In principle it is forbidden for a guardian to prevent a ward's marriage to a suitable husband, and for a husband to harm his wife to force her to ransom herself; a guardian may be permitted to refuse for the woman's own benefit. A guardian is an obstructer when a woman asks for a suitable husband, or a suitable man proposes, and he refuses without a valid reason, whether or not she asks for her proper dower; the Hanafis do not count refusing a dower below the usual amount as obstruction, and the Malikis do not count a compelling father's rejection of suitors as obstruction unless harm is intended. Once obstruction is proven before the judge, he orders the marriage; if the guardian still refuses, guardianship passes to the ruler according to the Hanafis, Shafi'is, most Malikis and one Hanbali narration, or to the next guardian according to the main Hanbali view; if all guardians obstruct, the judge contracts the marriage.Fleshy growth in the wife's womb and the right to annul (afal)
In the lexicon, afal is a fleshy growth in a woman's genital passage, which arises after childbirth and not in virgins; some say it is a swelling that narrows the passage until penetration is impossible. Some jurists distinguish it from ratq, a closure from birth; both are defects that give an option to end the marriage. The Malikis and Hanbalis hold that it gives the husband an option to annul the marriage, since it defeats the marriage's main purpose; Abu Hanifa and Abu Yusuf hold that neither spouse has such an option. The Shafi'is count ratq and qaran, another closure, as defects peculiar to women that give the option.The Arab woman and the international conventions
The 'Al-Wasatiyya' episode on the woman's global and Arab status and the international conventions. The youth voted: only 8% judged the woman's global situation worse than the man's, and 32% judged the Arab woman worse than the rest of the world. Figures aired: women do two-thirds of the world's work hours yet receive a tenth of its income, and Rwanda's parliament is 49% women while America's is less. The host concluded: take from the conventions what lifts injustice from women and reject what collides with religion — 'and this is the wasatiyya'.Family businesses
Family businesses as Tareq al-Suwaidan presents them in his Practical Administration lesson: his figures for their spread in the Gulf and their collapse in the second generation, the causes he names — among them a contested claim about women's intervention — and his remedy of training or withdrawal.The woman left unmarried (anus) and the rules on her consent and maintenance
In the lexicon, 'anus is a woman whose marriage is delayed after she reaches the age and stays in her family's house; the word is also used of a man whose marriage is late, and its plural is 'unnas. The obstruction of a marriage by a guardian can be a cause of a woman remaining unmarried. The jurists differ on treating the spinster as a virgin in matters of compulsion and consent: the majority hold she remains like a virgin in the guardian's power to compel her, while some Malikis and Shafi'is treat her like a previously married woman once her virginity is lost. The jurists do not fix a single age for spinsterhood; some give a range from twenty to forty, and others refer it to custom. The father must maintain an unmarried daughter until she marries.Maleness (dhukura) as a condition in the rulings
Maleness is the opposite of femaleness, and the jurists treat it as a condition in several rulings: the Malikis require it for leading prayer, and most jurists bar a woman from leading men; it is required for the obligation of Friday prayer, of holy war and for the supreme imamate. On marriage and judgeship the schools differ: the majority require a male guardian and a male judge, while the Hanafis allow a mature woman to contract her own marriage and to judge in cases without hadd penalties.The scarcity of female symbols across history
The 'Al-Wasatiyya' episode on the scarcity of female symbols across history — not to weaken woman but to ask those who broke the barrier how they broke it. The youth voted: 50% see female symbols existing today but more faintly than in the past; from the episode's figures, women in political work in that era numbered about 3%, and panelists cited historical names — Khadija, Fatima bint Abd al-Malik, Zubayda — and a Western book, 'The Promotable Woman', studying the phenomenon.Dyeing the hair (ikhtidab)
Ikhtidab (dyeing the hair): the use of dye to change the colour of hair with henna, katam, waras, saffron or black; the majority hold that changing the grey is recommended; black is disliked outside war by the Hanbalis, Malikis and Hanafis and forbidden by the Shafi'is except to holy warriors; a woman is recommended to dye her hands and feet with henna outside ihram with her husband's or master's leave.. The unmarried woman is disliked dyeing hands and feet by three schools, a widow may dye according to the Hanbalis, tattooing is absolutely forbidden, dyeing a black beard white is disliked, dyeing for a menstruating woman and for treatment is lawful, a widow in mourning may not dye, the head of a newborn is not to be smeared with blood, a man dyes his head and beard and may not dye hands and feet, and one in ihram may not use henna according to the Hanafis and Malikis..Imra' (woman: her rights, duties and status in fiqh)
Imra' is the adult female, and some rulings apply to her specifically, such as shares of inheritance and testimony. A woman has a right to care and education; once she has judgement she has an independent financial standing, is not married without her consent, and must cover herself and avoid mixing with men. She is bound by the Law, with some differences in forms of worship; she has menstruation, pregnancy and childbirth; in general she does not hold the rule of amirate or judgeship, is not bound to jihad, and her testimony is half a man's. The man is in charge of her, and her maintenance is due from her husband.Marital companionship and the rights of spouses (ishra)
In the lexicon, ishra is companionship and mingling; ashir is a near kinsman or friend, and a wife's ashir is her husband. As a term it is the affection and union between spouses. The Hanafis and Hanbalis hold that spouses' good companionship is recommended, while the Malikis hold it obligatory in conscience but not enforceable in court. Good companionship means fulfilling each one's rights in full with good conduct. The husband's rights include the wife's surrender of herself for intercourse, her obedience in what is not sinful, the enjoyment of her, her cleanliness and grooming, her not admitting unwanted guests or leaving the house without his leave; the majority hold that service is not obligatory on her, while the Hanafis hold it obligatory in conscience. The wife's rights include the dower, maintenance, the husband's intercourse with her, and night-sharing or equal division where he has more than one wife, on which the jurists differ in detail. Companionship, enjoyment and inheritance are shared rights.Islamic feminism
Islamic feminism is a modern discourse reading the sharia's texts egalitarianly on women's questions; academic study traces the term's emergence and its convergence with secular feminisms.Iyas (despair; the end of menstruation through age and its effect on the waiting period, clothing and divorce; and the prohibition of despairing of God's mercy)
Iyas in lexical sense is the cutting off of hope and desire; the jurists use it in two senses: the end of menstruation through age, and the cutting off of hope. A woman past menstruation observes a waiting period of three months and her divorce is in the sunna form for the Hanafis; she has a licence to uncover her outer garment without display. The jurists differ on the age of iyas: fifty, fifty-five or sixty, or the practice of the women of her clan, and the Malikis and Hanbalis have a least and a greatest age. A cessation of menstruation caused by illness or suckling is not iyas until the age is reached. Despair of God's mercy is forbidden and counted among the grave sins by the scholars, and the repentance of one who despairs of life is refused by the majority but accepted by some Hanafis.Jāhilī Marriage Forms
Four pagan marriage forms — common, istibda‘ (lending a wife for a better lineage), communal paternity assignment, and wife-swapping (al-badal) — Islam abolished all but the first.The social condition of the Arabs before Islam
al-Raheeq al-Makhtum's picture of Jahili society: the high standing of women among the nobility and the mixing of the other classes, the four Jahili forms of marriage in Aisha's report, unlimited polygamy, marrying two sisters and a father's widow, divorce in men's hands, widespread fornication, treatment of children from tenderness to burial alive, tribal asabiyya and the maxim 'help your brother, wronging or wronged', the disjointed relations between tribes, and the sacred months as their mercy; the author judges the social condition to have been at its lowest.Women's empowerment — between support and rejection
The 'Al-Wasatiyya' episode on women's empowerment. The youth judged women's public-life participation at 53% of men's — and 67% in rural Egypt per a guest; on government support (quota seats, ministries, economic support): 35% endorsed it, 10% rejected it, the rest endorsed it outside politics.Tashawwuf (the lawgiver's concern for a right; adornment in waiting and courtship)
Tashawwuf is longing or looking out, and in jurisprudence it covers several things: the lawgiver's concern to establish descent, so rare cases are admitted to attach a child to a father; his concern for manumission, an act of devotion that any sane Muslim may perform; the revocable divorcee may adorn herself in her waiting period, by the Hanafi, Maliki and Hanbali view, while the Shafiis recommend mourning for her; adornment is forbidden to a widow by consensus, and disputed for a woman divorced irrevocably; a woman fit for marriage may not adorn herself to be seen by suitors, while a suitor may look at her, the majority allowing only the face and hands and the Hanbalis what shows at work.Unutha (femininity; the honour of the female in Islam, her rights and duties, and the rules that apply to her)
Unutha is the opposite of masculinity; the female is the opposite of the male, known by bodily signs such as menstruation and by moral traits. Islam abolished the pre-Islamic dislike of a girl and the burial of daughters, and recognised every human, male or female, as having the right to life; it prescribed the aqiqa for a girl as for a boy, and good naming and kunya for her. It gave her a share of inheritance, forbade preferring a son over a daughter in gifts and care, and enjoined honour to her as wife and mother. She shares with men in some rights such as learning, the obligations of religion and a separate financial personality, and some rights are limited by her nature, such as covering, avoiding mixing, and the bounds of work. Her nature brings special rules: menstruation, pregnancy and childbirth; her nakedness; ablution and touch; the bath house; prayer and hajj; her husband's leave for voluntary worship; guardianship, witnessing and marriage; blood money; and zakat and sacrifice of female animals.Dower for intercourse without a valid contract (uqr)
In the lexicon, uqr is the dower, especially the dower given to a woman forced or taken as a slave-woman; it is also the dower of a woman who is had by mistake. As a term it is the dower of the usual kind for a free woman and, for a slave-woman, a tenth of her value if she was a virgin or half of it if she was not. Ajr is wider and covers the price of benefits generally, while uqr is used only of benefit from the woman's body. The dower is due in a valid marriage on the contract and consummation, and in a void marriage on consummation; it is due also for intercourse under a mistake, and the jurists differ on whether the stipulated dower or the customary dower is due.Waʾd (Infant Burial)
Waʾd: burying infant girls alive out of fear of poverty or disgrace — Islam abolished it and classed it among the gravest sins.Wajh (the face: washing in ablution, tayammum, covering and looking, and the face in supplication)
Wajh in the lexical sense comes from confronting; it is the front of anything, and in a person it runs from the hairline down to the chin and across between the earlobes. Washing the face is required in ablution, and wiping it is a pillar of tayammum by agreement. Most jurists hold that a free adult woman's face is not an intimate part, while some Hanbalis hold it is; looking at a woman's face with desire, or where temptation is feared, is forbidden. Jurists rebuke a young woman who uncovers her face before unrelated men out of fear of temptation; some Shafi'is and Hanbalis hold that the men must lower their gaze and the woman is not obliged to cover her face in the street. Striking or branding the face is forbidden, in man or beast, by the Prophet's prohibition. The Hanafis and Malikis forbid a pilgrim in ihram from covering his face, while the Shafi'is and Hanbalis allow it. The Hanafis and, in the accepted view, the Shafi'is allow wiping the face with the hands after supplication, and the Shafi'is recommend it.Wasl al-sha'r (hair extensions: the ruling on joining hair)
A wasila is a woman who joins her hair to another's, and a mustawsila is one for whom this is done at her request. The majority hold joining human hair forbidden, whether a woman's or a man's, on the reports of Asma bint Abi Bakr, Ibn Umar and Mu'awiya, since human hair is held in honour. A Hanafi view and a Hanbali view dislike it, and one Hanbali view permits it with the husband's leave. On joining animal hair the jurists differ: the Hanafis and one Hanbali view allow it, the Malikis and the Hanbali school forbid it, and the Shafi'is distinguish clean from unclean hair and a married woman from an unmarried one. On joining with material other than hair, such as cloth, the Hanafis and Hanbalis allow it, the Malikis forbid it, and the permission is attributed to Ibn Abbas, Umm Salama and Aisha. The Malikis hold the prohibition is not limited to women, since it alters God's creation.Women's work in Islam
Al-Maraghi holds women and men to be of one origin and one humanity, and that Islam gave women rights of ownership, sale, gifts and inheritance, so they should learn and work (p. 23). He cites Aisha as a teacher of Islam, and reports that Bukhari has fifty-four hadiths from her, a count the book prints but which was not checked here (p. 23). He cites Asma bint Abi Bakr's role in the Hijra and women tending the wounded at Uhud (pp. 24-25). Work is allowed with modesty and without harm to family duties (p. 24). A family with means may leave the woman free of work (p. 25).
Group
Screening Room
678
2010 CE · 1431 AH†678.Adam
2019 CE · 1440 AH†Adam.Quo Vadis, Aida?
2020 CE · 1441 AH†Quo Vadis, Aida?.The Circle
2000 CE · 1421 AH†The Circle.The Milkmaid
2020 CE · 1441 AH†The Milkmaid.The Cave
2019 CE · 1440 AH†The Cave.The Source
2011 CE · 1432 AH†Radu Mihaileanu's film about women in a Moroccan village who strike over fetching water; an Arabic social comedy.The Burdened
2023 CE · 1444 AH†The first Yemeni film at Berlinale: a couple in Aden face a hard decision over an unwanted pregnancy amid war and poverty.The Perfect Candidate
2019 CE · 1440 AH†Haifaa al-Mansour's film about a Saudi doctor who runs for a municipal council seat in a conservative town.Muhteşem Yüzyıl
2011 CE · 1432 AH†Globally famous Turkish series on Süleyman the Magnificent and Hürrem Sultan; among the most-watched Turkish series in the Arab world.The Swimmers
2022 CE · 1443 AH†Film about Syrian swimmer sisters Yusra and Sara Mardini who crossed the Aegean as refugees then reached the Rio Olympics; a famous refugee drama.Amina
2021 CE · 1442 AH†Amina.Four Daughters
2023 CE · 1444 AH†Kaouther Ben Hania's docudrama on Tunisian mother Olfa Hamrouni, whose two daughters left to join ISIS in Libya — Oscar-nominated for best documentary.Asmaa
2011 CE · 1432 AH†Asmaa.Atlantics
2019 CE · 1440 AH†Atlantics.Offside
2006 CE · 1427 AH†Jafar Panahi's film about Iranian girls trying to enter a stadium closed to women; Silver Bear winner at Berlinale.Ayat-Ayat Cinta
2008 CE · 1429 AH†The Indonesian phenomenon based on Habiburrahman El-Shirazy's novel about a pious Indonesian student at al-Azhar and his loves — it remade Indonesian cinema toward religious romance.Papicha
2019 CE · 1440 AH†Papicha.Baran
2001 CE · 1422 AH†Majid Majidi's film about an Iranian construction worker who discovers his co-worker is an Afghan girl in disguise; one of his Afghan-refugee works.Persepolis
2007 CE · 1428 AH†The French-Iranian animated film of Marjane Satrapi's childhood in revolutionary and post-revolutionary Iran — Oscar-nominated.Bol
2011 CE · 1432 AH†Bol.Brick Lane
2007 CE · 1428 AH†Sarah Gavron's adaptation of Monica Ali's novel about a Bangladeshi Muslim wife in London's Brick Lane torn between duty and desire; filming drew community objections.Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame
2007 CE · 1428 AH†Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame.Halima's Path
2012 CE · 1433 AH†Halima's Path.The Nightingale's Prayer
1959 CE · 1378 AH†The Nightingale's Prayer.Farha
2021 CE · 1442 AH†Darin Sallam's film about a Palestinian girl locked in a cellar during the 1948 events; Jordan's Oscar entry, it stirred controversy in Israel.At Five in the Afternoon
2003 CE · 1424 AH†At Five in the Afternoon.Insyriated
2017 CE · 1438 AH†Insyriated.The Patience Stone
2012 CE · 1433 AH†The Patience Stone.Hala
2019 CE · 1440 AH†Film about a Pakistani-American Muslim teenager finding herself between a Muslim home and an American world; an Apple release.Incendies
2010 CE · 1431 AH†Denis Villeneuve's Oscar-nominated film about Canadian twins returning to their mother's Middle Eastern homeland, uncovering a civil war fought between Muslims and Christians.A Regular Woman
2019 CE · 1440 AH†A Regular Woman.Perempuan Berkalung Sorban
2009 CE · 1430 AH†Perempuan Berkalung Sorban.Inshallah a Boy
2023 CE · 1444 AH†Amjad Al-Rasheed's Jordanian film about a widow fighting inheritance law to keep her home and daughter; first Jordanian film in Cannes competition.Jinn
2018 CE · 1439 AH†Nijla Mu'min's film about an American teenager whose mother converts to Islam, searching for identity between faith, art and love.Grbavica
2006 CE · 1427 AH†Grbavica.Kandahar
2001 CE · 1422 AH†Mohsen Makhmalbaf's film about an Afghan-Canadian journalist travelling to Kandahar to save her sister under Taliban rule; a landmark pre-2001 film on Afghanistan.In the Name of God
2007 CE · 1428 AH†Shoaib Mansoor's Pakistani film about two musician brothers pulled apart by militancy and moderation after 9/11 — a major national debate on religion, music and forced marriage.Submission
2004 CE · 1425 AH†Theo van Gogh and Ayaan Hirsi Ali's short film criticising the treatment of women under Islam; van Gogh was assassinated months after its broadcast.Not Without My Daughter
1991 CE · 1411 AH†The film of Betty Mahmoody's memoir — an American mother escaping Iran with her daughter; the most-watched US film about Iran and long debated for its portrayal of Muslim Iranians.Leila
1997 CE · 1418 AH†Leila.Layla M.
2016 CE · 1437 AH†Layla M..For Sama
2019 CE · 1440 AH†Waad al-Kateab's documentary filmed in besieged Aleppo addressed to her daughter Sama; a human witness of the Syrian war, Oscar-nominated.What Will People Say
2017 CE · 1438 AH†What Will People Say.Mammo
1994 CE · 1415 AH†Mammo.Saint Mary
2001 CE · 1422 AH†Shahriar Bahrani's Iranian film about Maryam daughter of Imran and the birth of Jesus, told from the Qur'anic and Islamic tradition.Ms. Marvel
The Marvel miniseries on Kamala Khan — a Pakistani-American Muslim teenager in Jersey City who gains powers; Marvel's first Muslim lead, portraying mosque life, prayer and Eid.Moolaadé
2004 CE · 1425 AH†Moolaadé.Mustang
2015 CE · 1436 AH†Film about five Turkish sisters facing strict custom in a Black Sea village; Oscar-nominated for Best Foreign Film.We Are Lady Parts
Nida Manzoor's Channel 4 sitcom about an all-Muslim-women punk band in London — BAFTA-winning and praised for breaking Muslim-women stereotypes.Nikaah
1982 CE · 1402 AH†B.R. Chopra's Hindi film about a wife divorced by triple talaq in a moment of anger — it sparked a national debate in India on Islamic divorce.Women of the Weeping River
2016 CE · 1437 AH†Women of the Weeping River.Norah
2023 CE · 1444 AH†Tawfik Al-Zaidi's Saudi film about a girl in a remote 1990s village dreaming of art; the first Saudi film in Cannes' official competition.The Stoning of Soraya M.
2009 CE · 1430 AH†A film dramatising the true account of Soraya Manutchehri, falsely accused of adultery and stoned in an Iranian village — from Freidoune Sahebjam's book.Raqs-e-Bismil
A Pakistani series about a religious family's son whose forbidden love teaches him the difference between inherited piety and true devotion — a modern hit.Rachida
2002 CE · 1423 AH†Rachida.Rehana Maryam Noor
2021 CE · 1442 AH†Rehana Maryam Noor.Huda's Salon
2021 CE · 1442 AH†Huda's Salon.The Swallows of Kabul
2019 CE · 1440 AH†The Swallows of Kabul.Shehr-e-Zaat
A Pakistani drama about an elite young woman whose unrequited love becomes a search for God — a landmark spiritual drama.He Named Me Malala
2015 CE · 1436 AH†He Named Me Malala.Caramel
2007 CE · 1428 AH†Caramel.3000 Nights
2015 CE · 1436 AH†3000 Nights.Snow
2008 CE · 1429 AH†Snow.Timbuktu
2014 CE · 1435 AH†Abderrahmane Sissako's Oscar-nominated film on Timbuktu under Ansar Dine's jihadist rule in 2012 — an indictment of violent extremism made from inside Muslim life.Osama
2003 CE · 1424 AH†Siddiq Barmak's film — the first Afghan feature after the Taliban — about a girl disguised as a boy named Osama to feed her family; Golden Globe winner.Goodbye Julia
2023 CE · 1444 AH†Goodbye Julia.Bye Bye Tiberias
2023 CE · 1444 AH†Bye Bye Tiberias.Wadjda
2012 CE · 1433 AH†Haifaa al-Mansour's film — the first feature directed by a woman inside Saudi Arabia — about a girl in Riyadh who wants a bicycle; a quiet study of gender and public space.Where Do We Go Now?
2011 CE · 1432 AH†Nadine Labaki's film about a Lebanese village where Muslims and Christians coexist, whose women conspire to head off sectarian violence — Toronto People's Choice winner.Yasmin
2004 CE · 1425 AH†Yasmin.The Day I Became a Woman
2000 CE · 1421 AH†Marzieh Meshkini's Iranian film: three stories of Iranian women at three ages; among the best-known Iranian films on women.
Tensions on this theme
What is missing? Tell us · A theme is open when it has a reviewed guide, 10 questions, 25 entries across 5 classes, and voices from several traditions and regions.