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Introduction 1. Qur’an Surat Al Baqarah :–, :a. 2. Bi Swafiya Salim Muhashamy-Said is a niece of Shamsa Muhashamy, commonly known in Mombasa as Mwana Kutani, one of the subjects of Strobel ; she is also mentioned in Mirza and Strobel , . 3. See Kabira for the role of educated Kenyan women in the constitutionmaking process and their alliance with grassroots women’s organizations. 4. See Ndzovu , –, which draws from the Akiwumi official transcript, October , , quoted by Human Rights Watch . 5. For a discussion of Swahiliness, see Mazrui and Shariff . 6. Al-Shabaab, considered a radical Islamist group, emerged from the Islamic Court movement, the coalition that saw the downfall of Siad Barre’s regime and that for a while constituted the Mogadishu government before it was routed out by Ethiopia’s invading army (Human Rights Watch ). More recently, Al-Shabaab has been accused of promoting terrorist activities in the region and of training young recruits of the Mombasa Republican Council, a recent political formation on the Kenyan coast with secessionist ambitions.This alleged interference of Al-Shabaab in Kenya partly served as a justification for Kenya’s military intervention in Somalia. 7. See Robertson and James for critical perspectives on FGM and caution against Western sensationalism. While I am in absolute agreement with the caution , I don’t think it’s only Western feminists who object to FGM and so also feel it is equally important to document the agency of those (Muslim) women who are leading the current struggle on their own terms in the Kenyan Parliament and in Kenyan communities against it. 8. See wunrn.com/news//_/__/_fgm.htm. 9. See the Kenya Women Parliamentary Association’s commentaries on the Notes passing of FGM Act of , fgcdailynews.blogspot.com/__archive.html and www.kenyaforum.net/?p=. 10. In Mombasa Swahili, the term “leso” is used instead of the more popular “kanga.” See Zawawi . 11. See wisemuslimwomen.org/muslimwomen/bio/sophia_abdi_noor. 12. See Robertson and Wangila , . 13. See Keaton and Scott . 14. Zuberi founded Tangana Women Development Group in , a nonprofit community organization catering to children, especially orphans from disadvantaged communities in coastal Kenya. 15. See Othman-Yahya and Zawawi for fascinating sociolinguistic studies of the Swahili kanga, or leso (women’s wrapper). 16. See also Omale , in which Mutua is quoted. 17. Other studies of the kadhi courts and Islamic law in East Africa include Hirsch a, ; Makaramba , –; Maoulidi ; and Stile . 18. See Porter , –, on the performance of heshima through Muslim dress fashion in a school setting by young Muslim girls at a Mombasa girl’s school. Chapter . Bi Swafiya Muhashamy-Said 1. See Hodgson for a powerful account of the interplay between gender and modernity in societies in Africa, Asia, and Latin America that are not products of colonial modernity. 2. “Bi” is a short form for “bibi,” which literally means “grandmother” in Kiswahili . It is also an honorific term for a senior woman in Swahili society. 3. The experience of Swahilis in Goa during the Portuguese rule of the Kenyan coast is worth mentioning. In the sultan of Mombasa, named Hassan bin Ahmed, was summoned to a Catholic court at Goa, where he refused to accede to the Portuguese demands. The dispute began when the sultan wanted to make an annual pilgrimage to Mecca, send trading expeditions to China, and make an economic treaty with Pemba, the source of rice for Mombasa. The Portuguese refused to allow the sultan to deposit his entire grain stock in Fort Jesus, and because the sultan rejected their demands, he was taken to Goa. On his return to Mombasa, he was soon assassinated by Simao de Mello Pereira, who was bribed by the king of Portugal. Sultan Hassan bin Ahmad was succeeded by his brother, Muhammad bin Ahmed. His son Yusuf, then seven years old, was sent to Goa for Catholic education at an Augustinian convent. After being baptized in Goa, he was renamed Dom Jerenimo Chingulia and given a Portuguese wife in the hopes that that would lead him to adopt Euro-Christian imperialistic culture. In he wrote a letter to the pope, shortly before he returned to Mombasa to take up his throne. 4. See Pouwels . Notes to pages – 5. The Muslim Women’s Institute in Mombasa was founded in (Mirza and Strobel , ). 6. The national Islamic curriculum was part of the national curriculum, which, together with Christianity and the Hindu religion, was introduced by the regime of...
