Doctoral thesis: The Translator’s Gender and Ideology: Implications for the Translation of the Holy Quran
This dissertation investigates the intersection of gender, ideology, and translation in two English translations of the Qur’an: Shabbir Ahmed’s The Qur’an as It Explains itself (2007) and Laleh Bakhtiar’s The Sublime Quran (2011). It aims to assess whether either translator employed feminist translation strategies, how their textual and discursive choices reflect gender-related ideological positioning, and which of the two translations most strongly aligns with feminist principles. The study adopts a multidisciplinary framework that integrates feminist translation strategies proposed by de Lotbinière-Harwood (1991), von Flotow (1991), and Appiah (1993), alongside Fairclough’s (1992) three-dimensional model. Drawing on a corpus of 236 verses, the analysis addresses all three dimensions of Fairclough’s model: it examines 16 examples in the textual analysis while identifying the feminist strategies employed, 20 examples in the discursive practice analysis, and relies on the translators’ prefaces and introductions to explore the social practice dimension. The findings reveal that Ahmed primarily uses hijacking, thick translation, feminization, and neutralization to enhance women’s visibility, advocate for their rights, and promote an egalitarian tone, at times exhibiting a noticeable bias in favor of women. In contrast, Bakhtiar’s translation consistently applies supplementing, mainly to preserve the feminine elements already present in the source text. The study concludes that Ahmed’s translation, although produced by a male translator and not explicitly framed as feminist, demonstrates a stronger alignment with feminist principles than Bakhtiar’s, whose translation is largely marked by literalism. By examining how Qur’anic discourse is reshaped in English through ideologically motivated interventions, the study contributes to feminist translation studies, Qur’anic studies, and critical discourse analysis. It also underscores the role of translator agency and explores how gender both shapes and is shaped by the translation of sacred texts.
