Fatima is Fatima (Ali Shariati)

Description

Ali Shariati / Əli Şəriati

Fatima is Fatima / Fatimə Fatimədir

Women who have remained in the `traditional mould’ do not face the problem of identity and women who have accepted the `new imported mould’ have solved the problem for themselves. But in the midst of these two types of molded women’, there are those who can neither accept their hereditary, traditional form nor surrender to this imposed new form. What should they do?
They want to decide for themselves. They want to develop themselves. They need a model, an ideal example, a heroine. For them, the problem of ‘Who am I? How do I become?’ is urgent. Fatemeh, through her own ‘being’, answers their questions.

I would have been satisfied with giving an analytical description of the personality of Fatemeh. I found that book shops had no books about her and thus, our intellectuals know nothing about her life. I was obliged to compensate for this lack to a certain extent. Thus this present essay is the same lecture, but expanded to include a biography based upon documented, traditional sources about this beloved person, who has remained unknown or misinterpreted. In this bibliography, I particularly drew from historical documents. Whenever I reached a problem of faith and explicitly Shiite views, I chose Sunni sources, since Shi’ism grew out of the origins of Sunnism, and from the scholar’s point of view, they are irrefutable.

I cannot say that this lecture is without need of criticism. Rather, the reverse is true. It is in great need-waiting for those with pure hearts, those who enjoy to guide, those who are willing to serve, rather than those who show hostility, abuse and make use of slander.

Ali Shariati
June 1971