Mahjabeen Dhala

Mahjabeen Dhala studies women's contributions to Islamic doctrine, practice, and devotional piety.  She is a presidential scholar and a PhD candidate in the Department of Sacred Texts and Their Interpretation at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. Her dissertation looks at the seventh-century Sermon of Fatima to trace early Shia activist voices, especially those of women. In her capacity as a religious speaker and a spiritual guide, she has traveled widely, thus gaining a unique insight into the concerns of Muslim women both in the global North and the South.

• Islamic Studies
• Women in/and Islam
• Islamic history and law
• Qur'an and Hadith Studies

• Theology and Practice
• Women's Studies in Religion

• Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, PhD Cand, 2020
• Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, MA in Islamic Studies, 2017

• Newhall Fellow in Women's Studies in Religion, ABSW Berkeley
• Adjunct Professor in Islamic Studies, CDSP Berkeley
• Student Coordinator, Center for Islamic Studies at The GTU, Berkeley

• Arthur Vining Davis Award for Interreligious research, 2019

• GTU Presidential Scholarship

• "The Rib: resurrecting Skeletons, re-creating Eve,” in Beyond Words: Art Inspired by Sacred Texts. Berkeley: Center for the Arts and Religion, 2019.

• “Five Foundational Women in the Qur’an: Rereading their Stories from a Shia Female Perspective,” in Berkeley Journal of Religion and Theology, Vol. 5, no. 2, (2019) © 2019 by the Graduate Theological Union.