Is Mohamed bin Salman being too authoritarian with his progressive reforms? What is the fundamental difference between Saudi Salafism, Wahabism, and the other broad branches of Sunni Islam? Are the Sunni-Shi’a political tensions across the Middle Eastern region fundamentally insurmountable? To what extent is Islam and Islamic societies oppressive to women?

The ANU International Relations Society’s Kaitie Wickham will be talking to Dr Raihan Ismail, a researcher and lecturer at ANU at the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies.

In 2018, Raihan was the co-recipient of the Max Crawford Medal, awarded by the Australian Academy of the Humanities for outstanding achievement in the humanities by an early-career scholar. Alongside research, she has presented her research in multiple different contexts, including at Harvard, the Crawford Australian Leadership Forum, and the Canberra Writers’ Festival. If that isn’t enough, she convenes seminars on political Islam for various Commonwealth Government agencies, including the Attorney General’s Department and the Department of Defence.

The book recommendations mentioned are Do Muslim women need saving? by Lila Abu-Lughod, and the various books by Yuval Noah Harari (for example, Sapiens and Homo Deus). Also, the exact quote from Jamal Khashoggi that Raihan was referring to when talking about Mohammed bin Salman was: “He truly wants to make Saudi Arabia great again. But he is doing it the wrong way.“ from https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/10/how-jamal-khashoggi-fell-out-with-bin-salman.

We hope you enjoy the discussion!