In late September of 2022, I passed the final exam (viva/defence) for my PhD at Oxford University, pending minor corrections. The subject of my thesis was the famous and controversial hadith about the Islamic prophet Muḥammad’s marriage to his wife ʿĀʾišah bt. ʾabī Bakr at a young age: according to the dominant version of the … Continue reading Why I Studied the Aisha Hadith for my PhD: Some Reflections on Religious Interpretation, Sunni Orthodoxy, and Islamophobia