A Border Passage Resources

This is Leila Ahmed's bio page at Harvard Divinity School.

Ahmed mentions visiting el-Arafa, Cairo's four-mile-long cemetery—and not being able to find her parents' graves. As she weaves her way through it, she mentions that the cemetery is actually a city unto itself and that the tombs often house families. This is the photographic story of two families who live there among the dead.

Leila Ahmed's book explores the return of the custom of veiling (i.e., wearing hijab) for Muslim women around the world—and what it means.

Ahmed fulfills her desire to dig deep into the subject of women and Islam with her first book, Women and Gender in Islam (1992).

Leila Ahmed worked as an advisor to this 2002 PBS documentary Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet.

Ahmed talks women's issues in Islam, including wearing hijab, with Ingrid Lilly.

Ahmed's theories about what the veil means to Muslim women challenge what people know or think they know about feminism and patriarchy in the Arab world. Sometimes, her audience doesn't react so well.

A quick overview of Ahmed's research on Muslim women wearing the veil, especially in Western countries.

Leila Ahmed speaks with Terry Gross of NPR's Fresh Air about her then-new work, A Border Passage.

Ahmed joins a panel of speakers on Neal Conan's Talk of the Nation to discuss powerful Muslim women reforming Islam from the inside.

A short BBC 4's Women's Hour interview with Leila Ahmed on her book A Quiet Revolution.

Krista Tippett speaks with Leila Ahmed about women and Islam for her show, On Being. They discuss the wearing of hijab and how it signifies vastly different things to different people.

This blog contains some wonderful pics of Cairo from the 1880s to the 1950s—including the storefront of Délices, a sweet shop mentioned by Ahmed in her work.

A considerate blogger has gleaned images of Egyptian political life in the 1940s from Life magazine's vast open collection for us to enjoy.