Kecia Ali

Kecia Ali (born 1972) is an American scholar of Islam who focuses on the study of Islamic jurisprudence, ethics, women and gender, and biography. She is currently a professor of religion at Boston University. She previously worked with Brandeis University's Feminist Sexual Ethics Project, presided over the Society for the Study of Muslim Ethics and was a research associate and postdoctoral fellow at Brandeis University and Harvard Divinity School. 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. Ali talks about controversial topics such as marriage, divorce, sex, concubinage, same-sex intimacy, and much more. 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.

Publications

Books Her major works include: Sexual Ethics and Islam: Feminist Reflections on Qur'an, Hadith, and Jurisprudence (2006; expanded ed. 2016). Marriage and Slavery in Early Islam (2010). Imam Shafi‘i: Scholar and Saint (2011). A Jihad for Justice: Honoring the Work and Life of Amina Wadud (2012) (co-edited with Juliane Hammer and Laury Silvers). The Lives of Muhammad (2014). Human in Death: Morality and Mortality in J.D. Robb's Novels (2017). Women in Latin America and the Caribbean (co-authored with ...). Islam: The Key Concepts (2007) (co-authored with Oliver Leaman).