Zahra Ali is a sociologist who researches dynamics of women and gender, race and class, social and political movements in relation to Islam(s), the Middle East, and contexts of war and conflict with a focus on contemporary Iraq. She is interested in (racial) capitalism, (post)coloniality, decolonial and transnational feminisms as well as critical knowledge production and epistemologies, especially in relation to global and public sociology. Ali works and writes in English, French and Arabic and is involved in feminist and critical knowledge production projects with activists and scholars from/in the Middle East and beyond.
Ali is currently working on a new book, Up-Rising / انتِ– فاضة and the Political Imagination, that shifts the dominant lens of social theory in analyzing mass protests away from a binary approach of power/resistance by looking at ‘the political’ from the point of view of life, space, violence, and emancipation. The book considers the recent uprising in Iraq as a framework to understand how power works in the contemporary capitalist world. It relies on in-depth ethnographic research and field observations in the locus of protests in Iraq and provides a unique analysis placing protesters’ experiences at the center of theorization.
Her book Women and Gender in Iraq (Cambridge University Press, 2018; also translated into Arabic and French), is a sociology of Iraqi women’s social and political activism and feminisms through an in-depth ethnography of post-invasion Iraqi women’s rights organizations and a detailed research of women’s social, economic, and political experiences since the formation of the Iraqi state. Through a transnational/postcolonial feminist approach, Ali looks at the ways in which gender norms and practices and Iraqi feminist discourses and activisms are shaped through state politics, competing nationalisms, religious, tribal and sectarian dynamics, as well as wars and economic sanctions.
Ali’s forthcoming book Decolonial Pluriversalism, co-edited with Professor Sonia Dayan-Herzbrun (soon to be published by Rowman & Littlefield’s Creolizing the Canon series) explores decolonial theories reflecting on non-eurocentric epistemologies, aesthetics, political thoughts, and activisms. The volume draws on Latin American and Caribbean philosophies, concepts of creolization, and racialization, and explores Afropean aesthetics, arts and cultural productions, religion, feminisms, fashion, education, and architecture. It is an expanded version of the volume Pluriversalisme Décolonial, published as a special issue of Tumultes in French.
Ali developed a Critical Feminist Syllabus in Arabic and the Gender Justice and Feminist Knowledge Production guide based on work conducted with Syrian feminists. In Iraq, she is working and teaching with academics and activists developing a Social Change Curriculum focused on critical thinking and feminist knowledge production.
Ali also co-edited with Yafa Shanneik and Chris Heinhold a special issue of Journal of Muslims in Europe, Mapping Shia Muslim Communities in Europe: Local and Transnational Dimensions (Brill, 2017). The volume provides for the first time an empirical comparative study on the increasingly visible presence of Shia communities in Europe and examines its historical developments highlighting the local particularities and their transnational dimensions.
Her edited volume Féminismes Islamiques (La Fabrique editions, 2012; translated and published in German, Spanish, and Turkish) reflects on transnational Islamic/Muslim feminisms through a postcolonial and intersectional feminist perspective, analyzing the interrelationship between race, gender, religion, and postcoloniality. This book also draws on her ethnographic research on Muslim feminists’ networks in France and her experience as an anti-racist Muslim feminist activist.
Courses Taught
Sociology of Gender (undergraduate level)
Sociology of Contemporary Islam (undergraduate level)
Contemporary Sociological Theory (undergraduate level)
Postcolonial, Transnational and Queer Feminist Perspectives on Global Cities (PhD/postgraduate level)
Gendering Peace, War and Conflict: Critical Feminist Perspectives (postgraduate level)
Education
Ph.D. Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Sociology, 2015.
M.A. Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Sociology with an emphasis in Gender Studies (Genre, Politique et Sexualités), 2009.
M.A. Université Rennes 2 Haute Bretagne, Sociology, 2008.
B.A. Université Rennes 2 Haute Bretagne, Sociology, 2007.
Publications
Books
Women and Gender in Iraq: between Nation-building and Fragmentation. Cambridge University Press, 2018.
Arabic translation by Wasan Qasim, Academic Center for Research, Baghdad: Iraq, 2021.
French translation by Nada Ghosn, Syllepse, Paris: France, 2022.
Decolonial Pluriversalism. Co-edited with Sonia Dayan-Herzbrun, Rowman & Littlefield (Creolizing the Canon series), forthc.
Féminismes islamiques, La Fabrique: Paris, 2020 (second edition), 2012.
German translation by Christian Leitner, Passagen Verlag, Wien: Austria, 2014.
Turkish translation by Öykü Elitez, İletişim, Istanbul: Turkey, 2014.
Spanish translation forthcoming, Capital intelectual, Buenos Aires: Argentina, 2019.
Edited Journal Volumes
Mapping Shia Muslim Communities in Europe: Local and Transnational Dimensions. Co-edited with Yafa Shanneik and Chris Heinhold, Journal of Muslims in Europe (6:2) 2017.
Pluriversalisme décolonial. Co-edited with Sonia Dayan-Herzbrun, Tumultes (48), 2017.
Peer Reviewed Journal articles
2021 From Recognition to Redistribution? Protest Movements in Iraq in the Age of 'New Civil Society'. Journal of Intervention and StateBuilding n°15/4, pp.528-542.
2019 Feminisms in Iraq: beyond the religious and secular divide. Gender and Research n°20/2, pp.47-66.
2019 Being a Young British Iraqi Shii in London: exploring diasporic cultural and religious identities between Britain and Iraq. Contemporary Islam n°13/1, pp.349-367.
2018 Women’s political activism in Iraq: caught between NGOization and the struggle for a civil state. International Journal of Contemporary Iraqi Studies n°12/2 Summer/Fall 2018, pp.35-51.
2018 La Fragmentation du genre dans l’Irak post-invasion. Nouvelles Questions Féministes n°37/1, pp.86-105.
2017 Fragmentation de l’Irak et droits des femmes: mobilisations des féministes et de la société civile, in Guerre et violences au Moyen-Orient, Confluences Méditerranée, n°103, winter 2017-2018, pp.41-52.
2013 Le mouvement des femmes de l’Irak post-Saddam, L’Homme et la société, Sexe et Politique, n°189-190, February, pp. 223-243.
2013 Le mouvement des femmes dans l’Irak post-Saddam : entre Genre, Nation et Religion. Héritages passés et défis présents. Femminismi nel Mediterraneo, (eds) Leila El Houssi and Lucia Sorbera, Genesis, XII / 1, pp.71-99.
Book chapters
2020 النشاط النسوي في العراق في ظل حركة الاحتجاج in السلوك الاحتجاجي في العراق, (eds.) Fares Kamal Nazmi, University of Kufa Press.
2020 Women’s Day in the City of Men, in Women Rising: in and Beyond the Arab Spring, (eds.) Rita Stephen & Mounira M. Charrad. New York University Press.
2020 Mobilisations des féministes irakiennes depuis 2003, in Féminismes dans le monde. 23 récits d’une révolution mondiale. (eds.) Pauline Delage and Fanny Gallot, Paris, Éditions Textuel.
2019 Women’s Right and Western Imperialism in Iraq: Past Meets Present, in The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism. (eds.) Immanuel Ness and Zak Cope.
2018 Irak: entre Militarisation et Mobilisation Sociale, in Etats des Luttes. Moyen-Orient et Afrique du Nord, (ed.) Frédéric Thomas, CETRI/Syllepse, Vol. XXV - 2018, n°4.
2018 Political-Social Movements: Feminist: Iraq, in: Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures, General Editor Suad Joseph.
2018 The Fragmentation of Gender in Post-Invasion Iraq, The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Middle-Eastern and North African History, (eds.) Amal Ghazal and Jens Hanssen, Oxford University Press.
2016 Des féminismes décoloniaux, in Changer le modèle. Ici et maintenant ? Points de vue du Sud, (eds.) Aurélie Leroy and Frédéric Thomas, CETRI/Syllepse, Vol. XXIII – 2016, n°4.
2015 Irak: femmes en lutte entre chaos politique, confessionnalisme et ongisation, in État des résistances dans le Sud. Mouvements de femmes, (eds.) Aurélie Leroy, CETRI/Syllepse, Vol. XXII – 2015, n°4.
2015 Women’s Rights Activists and the Debates on the Personal Status Code in Postinvasion Iraq, in L’Irak: d’une crise à l’autre. Les réalités et les défis d’un Etat au bord de l’implosion, (eds.) Pierre Berthelot & Marius Lazar, (Stratégiques Orients), n°2-2015, Paris, L’Harmattan.
2013 Penser l’émancipation par le religieux : des féminismes islamiques, Penser l’émancipation. Offensives capitalistes et résistances internationales, (eds.) Hadrien Buclin, Joseph Daher, Christakis Georgiou and Pierre Raboud, Paris, La Dispute.
2013 with Laurent Bonnefoy, Retrouver Bagdad. Une jeunesse en quête de normalité, Jeunesses arabes. Du Maroc au Yémen : loisirs, cultures et politiques, (eds.) Myriam Catusse, Laurent Bonnefoy, Paris, La Découverte.
2010 Féminisme et islam : entretien avec Zahra Ali, in Féminisme au pluriel, (eds.)Pauline Debenest, Vincent Gay and Gabriel Girard, Paris, Syllepse (Cahiers de l’Émancipation).
2010 with Simona Tersigni, Feminism and Islam: a post-colonial and transnational reading, in Exchanges and Correspondence: The Construction of Feminism, (eds.) C. Fillard et F. Orazi, Newcastle upon Tyne, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 278-298.
Journal articles
2019 Iraqis demand a country. Middle East Report n° 292/293, pp. 2-5.
2019 Feminist activisms in post-Da'esh Iraq. Religion, Violence and the State in Iraq. POMEPS n° 35, pp.85-89.
2018 with Khalef Safaa, Southern Discontent Spurs an Iraqi Protest Movement, Current History n°117/803, pp: 338-343.
2018 النسوية في العراق:بين فرض نهج المنظمات غير الحكومية والعنف الطائفي والنضال من أجل دولة مدنية. عمران. Doha:Qatar. 5, pp. 7-28.
2014 Feminismos Islamicos, Tabula Rasa. Bogota-Colombia, n°21, July-December, pp. 123-137.
Research Reports
2019 Gender Justice and Feminist Knowledge Production in Syria. Women Now for Development, April 2019.
2016 with Nadje al-Ali and Isabel Marler, The new dynamics in the inclusion and empowerment of young women, in Youth in the Arab Region: Prospects for Human Development in a Changing Reality, 2016 Arab Human Development Report, UNDP.
2012 Des musulmanes en France : féminisme islamique et nouvelles formes de l'engagement pieux, Reliogioscope,Etudes et analyses, n° 27, Septembre 2012.
Public scholarship
2020 Women and the Iraqi Revolution. Jadaliyya.
2020 As-Safir. Beirut. عراقيات و ثائرات
2020 The civic and the political. Reflections on the Iraqi uprising. The Immanent Frame.
2020 "You have to walk in the path of life and in the path of death at the same time. I walked both paths and I survived." On the recent uprising in Iraq. Versopolis.
2020 Iraqis have been holding peaceful mass protests. The US strike and its aftermath are undermining that. Washington Post.
2020 How Us-Iran tensions have undermined Iraq's peaceful uprising. Middle East Eye.
2020 "We Demand a Homeland!". The Revolution of the Youth of Iraq. The Funambulist. n°27, pp.2-5.
2019 with Safaa Khalaf. In Iraq, demonstrators demand change and the government fights back. Washington Post.
2019 Open democracy .العراق: الاحتجاجات تطالب بالتغيير والحكومة والحكومة تستجيب العنف
2019 Protest movements in Iraq in the age of ‘new civil society’. LSE Blogs & Open Democracy, London.
2018 Women and Gender in Iraq, Shakomako.net, Doha.
2018 After several high-profile murders in Iraq, here’s what headlines missed about their cause. Washington Post.
2018 New Texts Out Now Interview on Women and Gender in Iraq, Jadaliyya
2018 L’Irak cherche à tourner la page ouverte par l’invasion américaine. Orient XXI, Paris.
2017 Women’s Rights are under Threat in Iraq. Washington Post.
2017 Offensive contre les Femmes en Irak, Orient XXI, Paris.
2017 حقوق المرأة العراقية في خطر,Al-Aalem Al-Jadid, Baghdad.
2017 Reflecting on Multiple Fragmentations in a City of Men, Jadaliyya.
2017 El Bnaya, Shakomako.net, Doha.
2017 محاولة جديدة للدفع بقانون أحوال شخصية رجعي في العراق, AS-SAFIR, n° 9177.
2017 Iraqi feminists mobilize against sectarian laws, Open Democracy.
2016 with Nadje Al-Ali and Isabel Marler, Reflections on authoring the chapter on young women for the 2016 Arab Human Development Report, Jadaliyya.
2016 Insurrection citoyenne contre la corruption et le confessionnalisme en Irak. Portraits d’une nouvelle génération de militants, ORIENT XXI.
2016 The Fragmentation of Women’s Rights in Post-invasion Iraq, The Funambulist Magazine n° 7, pp.4-5.
2016 Décoloniser le féminisme, Ballast.
2016 Young Grassroots Activism on the Rise in Iraq, Open Democracy.
2016 مقهى النساء في أربيل,AS-SAFIR, n° 13097.
2016 Opposing NGOs, a Woman at odds: the Women’s Only Café in Erbil,AS-SAFIR, n° 13097.
2015 De Baghdad à Paris : Pas de paix sans justice !, Quartiers XXI.
2015 Parler d’islam pour ne rien dire, Quartiers XXI.
2015 صلة شرذمة العراق بحقوق النساء , AS-SAFIR, n° 13013.
2015 Fragmentation de l’Irak et droits des femmes, Les Carnets de l’Ifpo. La recherche en train de se faire à l’Institut français du Proche-Orient (Hypothèses.org).
2013 with Laurent Bonnefoy, Retrouver Bagdad. Une jeunesse en quête de « normalité »,ORIENT XXI.
2012 Les musulmanes sont une vraie chance pour le féminisme, interview by Solène Brun and Capucine Larzillière, Contretemps.
2012 Penser l’émancipation par le religieux : des féminismes islamiques, Contretemps.
2011 Premier pas de la renaissance féminine en Irak, Les Carnets de l’Ifpo. La recherche en train de se faire à l’Institut français du Proche-Orient (Hypothèses.org).
2011 أول الطريق الى النهضة النسوية في العراق لصبيحة الشيخ داود, Les Carnets de l’Ifpo. La recherche en train de se faire à l’Institut français du Proche-Orient (Hypothèses.org).
Associated Programs
2021-22 Visiting Scholar, School of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Study (IAS)
2019 Research Fellow, Social Science Research Council (SSRC) & London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) Middle East Centre
2013-14 Visiting Academic, Centre for Gender Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)