Student Highlight: Saarah Ahmed
Biography
Saarah Ahmed is in her second year of the MA Islamic Studies program at Columbia. She previously completed her MA in Human Rights Law at SOAS (University of London), and her BA in Arabic and Islamic Studies at SOAS (University of London).
Interview
Question: Could you give a description of your work?
Saarah: My Master’s thesis titled Reviving Ethics, Decolonizing Islam, and Locating the ‘We’ of the Anthropocene explored the limitations of western (enlightenment) philosophy in tackling/addressing the environment and thus affecting how the climate change and the environment is dealt with today. The paper showed how Western philosophy was unique in its understanding of the human as distinct to nature, despite the normalization of these philosophies through the universalization of it through colonialism and its legacies. In this way the paper calls for decolonizing the concepts of morality and posits that Islamic ethics could be a one of many strong conceptual alternatives to the ethics of Western enlightenment, in relation to thinking of the environment. However, in order for Islamic ethics to be more than a conceptual alternative the paper suggested a decolonization of Islamic systems to revive its lost ethical reality.
Q: How and when did you become interested in this field?
S: The double critique that appears in my recent thesis at Columbia builds upon my previous academic research projects. My undergraduate dissertation looked at the dynamics between the legal and the ethical, through looking at Islamic family laws around adoption in the Muslim world today. During my MA in Human Rights Law I focused on critical legal theory and the limitations of the human rights regime exploring specifically how it addresses climate change. My previous research helped me write the latest paper which combines a critique of a certain type of western philosophy that is responsible for systems in place today, and a critique of a reduction of Islamic ethics through these very same systems.
Q: Has, and if so, how, has the COVID-19 affected/changed your work?
S: Yes, it has in a few different ways. The initial COVID-19 lockdowns exposed the negative effects that humans have had on the environment, as reports have shown the return of various types of wildlife without human interference. Whilst this may be a hopeful note to show how irreversible some of our affects are on the environment, it was also juxtaposed with some of the ensuing responses to COVID-19. For example it has exposed a selfishness in which many chose to protect individual rights over collective rights. This exposed a false dichotomy which is important, or even necessary, to overcome with regards to environmental issues. Put in another way, there is a lot that needs to be done for people to see that collective rights also encompasses the rights of individuals, and that these concepts are not mutually exclusive, but rather interdependent.
Q: What are your plans for the future? During and post Columbia?
S: As I finish up my MA at Columbia I hope to continue to build upon my research interests. Specifically I would like to explore the ways in which ethics can play a role in driving international policy around climate change and the environment. I hope to pursue my academic interests alongside working with marginalized communities, whether that be through working with grassroots organization and/or by addressing the unethical and discriminatory systems and policies in place today.