Fulera Issaka-Toure

About

Dr Fulera Issaka-Toure after completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the Department of Islamic Studies, University of Bayreuth, Germany, has been working on issues of gender rights, Islamic religious authorities, and legal pluralism in a secular context of Ghana. Her research interests are in the intersection of law and religion in ways that impact gender and women’s rights. She is currently developing a project on Islam among African migrants in Germany as well as researching Muslim youth, popular culture, and transforming Islamic religious authorities in Ghana. She has held prestigious fellowships including the DAAD, the German Research Foundation (DFG) through the Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies, the Ghana Education Trust Fund, the Bavarian Postdoctoral Fellowship, the Fritz Thyssen Postdoctoral Fellowship, and the SSRC’s African Peacebuilding Network’s Individual Research Award.

Education

PhD (Islamic Studies), University of Bayreuth, Germany, 2013 - 2018

M.Phil. (Study of Religions), University of Ghana, Ghana, 2006 – 2009

MA (Social Science), University of Cape Town, South Africa, 2010-2012

B.A. (Religions), University of Ghana, 2001 - 2005

Research Interest

Islam and law

Legal pluralism

Islam and gendered citizenship rights

Feminists’ studies

Islam and identity

African Muslims in the diaspora

Islam in Africa.

Publications

Issaka-Toure, Fulera. 2024. “’Kindergeld Is My Blood; My Blood Cannot Be Violated’: West African Muslim Women’s Experiences of Sexual Abuse in Germany.” In Sexual Violence in Muslim Communities: Towards Awareness and Accountability, ed. Samah Choudhury and Juliane Hammer, 82-92. Boston: OpenBU. https://hdl.handle.net/2144/49530.

Issaka-Toure, F. 2023. “Muslim Media Use, the Production of Islamic Gender Norms, and Media Stars in Ghana ". Journal for Islamic Studies 41(1):1-21.

Issaka-Toure, F. (2023). “Trajectories and Practices of Islamic Family Law in Accra: A Perspective on a Malam.” In A. Sounaye and A. Chappatte (eds), Islam and Muslim Life in West Africa: Practices, Trajectories, and Influences (pp.151-172). New De Gruyter.

Issaka-Toure, F. (2022). “I divorced him but he said he did not divorce me”: Gendered perspectives on Muslim divorce in Accra. In E. E. Stiles and A. U. Yakin (eds), Islamic Divorce in a Global World: Everyday Realities and Practices in the 21st Century, (pp.106-122). Rutgers University Press.

Issaka-Toure, F. (2020). “Interpretations of Jihad in Africa: A historical overview.” In F. Ngom, T. Falola and M. Kurfi (Eds.), A Handbook of Islam in Africa (pp. 77-92). Palgrave Macmillan.

Issaka-Toure, F. (2016a). “Creating Communitas: Muslim Voices, Gendered Norms and Mediated Sacred Spaces in Ghana.” In S. B. Debele and J. A. Arthur (Eds.), Religion and Space: Perspectives from African Experiences, (pp. 104-116). Bayreuth African Studies Working papers, BIGSASworks 15, https://epub.unibayreuth.de/2743/3/BIGSASworks%2015_16.02.10-Final.pdf

Issaka-Toure, F. (2022). “Muslim Marriages in Accra, Ghana: A Perspective in Minority/Majority Relations, Gender and Social Mobility.” Feminist Research 6 (1): 1-13.

Issaka-Toure, F. and Alidou, O. (2020). “Introduction: Current Perspectives on Islamic Family Law in Africa.” Islamic Africa (11): 153-162.

Issaka-Toure, F. (2020). “Application of Muslim Family Law as a Form of Customary Law in Accra, Ghana.” Islamic Africa (11): 232-251.

Issaka-Toure, F. (2019). “Women’s Views on Violence Against Wives in Muslim Marriages: Accra, Ghana.” Praxis: Journal of Gender and Cultural Critique, (27/1/2): 23-39. 

 Issaka-Toure, F. (2018). “Marriage Practices: Ghana.” Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures (BRILL) Supplement, (17): 1-13.

Issaka-Toure, F. (2016a). “Claiming Autonomy through Agency in a Patriarchal Structure: The Experiences of Muslim Women in Marital Relationships in Ghana.” HAWWA (BRILL): Journal of Women of the Middle East and the Islamic World, (14): 78-93.

Issaka-Toure, F. (2016b). “Agency in Praxis.” Journal of Race, Ethnicity and Religion, (7): 1-18.

Issaka-Toure, F. (2013). “Contesting the Normative.” Crosscurrents, (63): 198-210.

Issaka-Toure, F. (2022). Law as performance: theatricality, spectatorship and the making of law in ancient, medieval and early modern Europe, by Julie Stone Peters, Oxford, Oxford Series on Law and Literature, Oxford University Press. Legal Pluralism and Critical Social Analysis :1-2.

Issaka-Toure, F. (2018). “Hadija’s Story: Diaspora, Gender and Belonging in the Cameroon Grassfields by Harmony O'Rourke.”  Research Africa Reviews, 40-41.

Bouland, A. & Issaka-Toure, F. (2019). “Genre et fondamentalismes/Gender and Fundamentalisms by Fatou Sow.” Research Africa Reviews, 34-36.

Issaka-Toure, F. (2022). Muslim Women’s Marital and Citizenship Rights in Ghana. Kujenga Amanai, 1-4.