Feminist Readings of Classical Arabic Literature in Nigerian University Arabic Programmes: A Critical Curriculum Analysis

Classical Arabic literary texts taught in Nigerian university Arabic programmes have been almost uniformly selected and taught from androcentric interpretive frameworks, with little attention to feminist literary criticism or the diverse representations of women in pre-modern Arabic narrative, poetic, and juridical genres. This study conducts a critical curriculum analysis of the treatment of gender and the potential for feminist reading approaches in the Classical Arabic literature components of undergraduate and postgraduate Arabic programmes in six Nigerian universities. Using a critical curriculum theory methodology, the research analyses syllabi, set text selections, examination questions, and instructional approaches in Arabic literature courses at the University of Ibadan, Bayero University Kano, Ahmadu Bello University, University of Maiduguri, University of Lagos, and University of Ilorin. Interviews with 30 Arabic literature faculty members and focus groups with 60 students provide practitioner and learner perspectives on gender in Arabic literary curricula. The study finds that female-authored classical Arabic texts are virtually absent from all surveyed curricula and that feminist interpretive approaches are rarely introduced even in teaching texts with obvious gender themes. The study argues for the deliberate incorporation of feminist criticism as a methodological lens in Nigerian Arabic literary education and provides a set of annotated suggested readings to support this incorporation. Keywords: Feminist readings, classical Arabic literature, curriculum analysis, Nigerian universities, gender studies.