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Is Mohamed bin Salman being too authoritarian with his progressive reforms? What is the fundamental difference between Saudi Salafism, Wahabism, and the other broad branches of Sunni Islam? Are the Sunni-Shi\\u2019a political tensions across the Middle Eastern region fundamentally insurmountable? To what extent is Islam and Islamic societies oppressive to women?

The ANU International Relations Society\\u2019s Kaitie Wickham will be talking to Dr Raihan Ismail, a researcher and lecturer at ANU at the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies.

In 2018, Raihan was the co-recipient of the Max Crawford Medal, awarded by the Australian Academy of the Humanities for outstanding achievement in the humanities by an early-career scholar. Alongside research, she has presented her research in multiple different contexts, including at Harvard, the Crawford Australian Leadership Forum, and the Canberra Writers\\u2019 Festival. If that isn\\u2019t enough, she convenes seminars on political Islam for various Commonwealth Government agencies, including the Attorney General\\u2019s Department and the Department of Defence.

The book recommendations mentioned are Do Muslim women need saving? by Lila Abu-Lughod, and the various books by Yuval Noah Harari (for example, Sapiens and Homo Deus). Also, the exact quote from Jamal Khashoggi that Raihan was referring to when talking about Mohammed bin Salman was: \\u201cHe truly wants to make Saudi Arabia great again. But he is doing it the wrong way.\\u201c from https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/10/how-jamal-khashoggi-fell-out-with-bin-salman.

We hope you enjoy the discussion!