Американская исследовательница арабского происхождения ислама и исламской культуры. Является сторонником т.н. "исламского феминизма".

Первая женщина, ставшая постоянным профессором Гарвардской богословской школы.

Родилась в Каире (Египет) в 1940 г. После падения египетской монархии в 1952 г. эмигирировала с семьей в Великабританию.

Обучалась в Кэмбриджском университете, где получила бакалаврскую, магистерскую и докторскую степени.

В 1960-х переехала в США, где начала преподавать в высших учебных заведениях.

В 1981-1999 гг. преподавала в University of Massachusetts Amherst.

С 1999 г. является профессором Гарвардской богословской школы.

Является одной из ключевых фигур в области исследования ислама и исламской культуры.

Книги

"Edward W. Lane: A study of his life and works and of British ideas of the Middle East in the Nineteenth century". London: Longman. (1978)

“A Traditional Ceremony in an Islamic Milieu in Malaysia” Muslim Women (1984)

“Between Two Worlds: The Formation of a Turn-of-the-Century Egyptian Feminist,” in Life Lines: Theorizing Women’s Autobiography (1988)

“Arab Women: 1995, ” The Next Arab Decade: Alternative Futures (1988)

“Feminism and Cross-Cultural Inquiry: The terms of discourse in Islam" In coming to terms: Feminism, Theory and Politics. Ed. Elizabeth Weed. New York, Routhledge (1989)

“Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate” New Haven: Yale University Press, (1992)

"A Border Passage: From Cairo to America—A Woman's Journey". New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux, (1999)

"A Quiet Revolution: The Veil's Resurgence, from the Middle East to America". New Haven. Yale University Press (2011)

Статьи

“Women in the rise of Islam.” The new Voices of Islam : Rethinking Politics and Modernity : a Reader. Ed. Mehran Kamrava. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2006. 177-200.

“The Discourse of the Veil.” Post Colonialisms: an Anthology of Cultural Theory and Criticism. Ed. Gaurav Desai and Supriya Nair. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2005. 315-338.

“The Veil Debate Again: a View from America in the Early Twenty-first Century”. On Shifting Ground: Muslim Women in the Global Era. Ed. Fereshteh Nourale-Simone. New York: Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2005.

“Gender and literacy in Islam.” Nothing Sacred: Women Respond to Religious Fundamentalism and Terror. Ed. Betsy Reed. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press/Nation Books, 2002.

“The Women of Islam”. Transition 83 (2000): 78-97.

“Early Islam and the position of Women: the problem of interpretation.” Women in Middle Eastern History: Shifting Boundaries in Sex and Gender. Ed. Nikki R. Keddie, Beth Baron. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993.

“Arab Culture and Writing Woman’s Bodies.” Gender Issues 9.1 (March 1, 1989): 41-55.

“Women and the Advent of Islam.” Signs 11.4 (Summer, 1986): 665-691.

“Feminism and Feminist Movements in the Middle East, a Preliminary Exploration: Turkey, Egypt, Algeria, People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen.” Women and Islam. Ed. Ellen Skinner. Virginia: Pergamon Press: 1982. 153.

“Western Ethnocentrism and Perceptions of the Harem.” Feminist Studies 8.3 (Autumn, 1982): 521-534.

Ahmed, Leila, Krishna Ahooja-Patel, Charlotte Bunch, Nilufer Cagatay, Ursula Funk, Dafna N. Izraeli, Margaret McIntosh, Helen I. Safa, and Aline K. Wong. “Comments on Tinker’s ‘A Feminist view of Copenhagen”. Signs 6.4 (Summer, 1981): 771-790.

“Encounter with American Feminism: A Muslim Woman’s View of Two Conferences”. Women’s Studies Newsletter 8.3 (Summer, 1980): 7-9.