The end of a controversial scholar

The end of a controversial scholar



Egyptian scholar and thinker Nasr Hamed Abou Zeid, passed away in Sheikh Zayed hospital last Monday. After being diagnosed with an unknown disease, Zeid returned back to Egypt and went through a coma right before his death.

Born in 1943, Abou Zeid was unable to continue high school education due to economical problems. He gained technical school diploma instead, and later worked as a technician for the Egyptian Telecommunication Authority. During this period, he finished high school degree and enrolled in Cairo University, where he earned BA in Arabic Studies, MA and PHD in Islamic Studies.

Abou Zeid became a controversial scholar and dealt with very sensitive Islamic issues. In addition he wrote some books The Philosophy of Hermeneutics, Critique of Islamic Discourse, Text, Authority, and the Truth, Women in the Discourse of Crisis, Thus Spoke Ibn 'Arabi, and others.

His progressive ideas led some to accuse him of apostasy. He was excilled from Egypt in 1995 and settled in Netherlands were he worked as a professor of Islamic Studies in University of Leiden. Further more, he was ordered to divorce his wife Ibtihal Younis, a professor of French Literature at Cairo University, based on Islamic law that a Muslim woman cannot marry an apostate. The verdict was based on hisba, a doctrine that entitles any Muslim to take legal action against anyone or anything he considers to be harmful to Islam. At that time, the case drew the media’s attention about the controversial topic, which was considered against freedom of expression according to the human rights defenders.

Since then, Ibtihal Younes has been to Egypt a number of times since the separation order, primarily to discuss MA and PhD theses at the French Department at Cairo University. Abu Zeid has not been to Egypt since 1995, despite requests to attend seminars and conferences.

Last December Abu Zeid was banned from entering Kuwait to give two lectures about religious reform and women’s position in Islam. He was sent back to Cairo despite obtaining a valid visa.

Abu Zeid is an award-winning scholar. Alongside working in Egypt and Holland, he was a visiting professor at Osaka University in Japan between 1985 and 1989. He also received a fellowship from the Center for Middle East Studies at Pennsylvania State University in the United States of America between 1978 and 1980.

He will be buried later on Monday in his home village of Kahafa in the Nile Delta.