Dissertation
The Muslim Woman Question in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Between Islamic Tradition and Global Modernity
On Wednesday 24 September 2025 Marija Šerić successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.
- Author
- M. Šerić
- Date
- 24 September 2025
- Links
- Leiden Repository
The dissertation investigates early 20th century Bosnian Muslim public debates over the rights, roles, and public visibility of Muslim women—a set of issues commonly referred to as the “Muslim woman question.” It demonstrates how Bosnian Muslim intellectuals and religious scholars used issues related to women as a discursive space for negotiating broader tensions surrounding Islamic tradition, religious authority, authenticity, collective identity, and modernity. Drawing on a wide range of published materials—including journals, books, and pamphlets—the dissertation identifies three dominant intellectual currents shaping these debates: reformism, conservatism, and revivalism. Despite their differences, each current mobilized the figure of the Muslim woman to express their competing visions of true Islam, religious authority, cultural identity, and progress.
Employing an interdisciplinary methodology that integrates global history, gender theory, and discourse analysis, the dissertation situates Bosnian Muslim debates within broader global intellectual currents, while paying attention to the local context of the debates.
The dissertation is structured in two parts. The first part situates Bosnian Muslim debates within the global Muslim search for authenticity and explores the specific local intellectual context in which Bosnian Muslim debates emerged. The second part examines the centrality of the Muslim woman question in both global and Bosnian Muslim discourses on tradition and modernity.
By highlighting that Bosnian Muslim debates on women formed an integral part of the global negotiation of Islamic tradition and modernity, the dissertation contributes to the fields of Islamic studies, gender studies, and global intellectual history.
Supervisor: Prof.dr.mr. M.S. Berger
Co-supervisor: Dr. A.A. Yenen