Farhat Naseem Hashmi (Urdu: فرحت ہاشمی; born December 22, 1957) is a Pakistani-Canadian Islamic scholar and preacher.
[9][10] She has gained popularity as a feminist scholar both in Pakistan and abroad, as evidenced by crowds of up to ten thousand that attend her religious lessons, called dars : the number of women who got a diploma or certificate are estimated to be around 15,000 while those who followed her courses without formally enrolling are even more numerous.
In contrast to rigid and confrontational styles of proselytising, Hashmi has emphasized the need for her students to engage in voluntarily educating others through their examples.
[15] She was educated at a local school; then studied at the Government College for women Sargodha and ultimately completed her Master's degree in Arabic Language from the University of Punjab, Lahore.
She married a fellow scholar of Hadith Muhammad Idrees Zubair and the couple took up posts of lecturers at the International Islamic University (IIU), Islamabad.
Upon returning to Pakistan she launched Al-Huda International; a non-government welfare trust which seeks to educate women as to how they can interpret and then employ Islamic principles in their daily lives.
She utilizes modern methods of teaching in her lectures and is multilingual in Urdu, Arabic and English, so her female students; a large of whom come from educated, urban families, are able to relate with her.
[20] Hashmi began her career as a television preacher on Geo TV, where she hosted the programme Shahru Ramadan during the month of Ramadhan.
[33][34][17][27] Hashmi considers polygamy to be legal, and has encouraged Muslim women to let their husbands marry a second time as this benefits them religiously and saves men from having a nonmarital relationship, which is forbidden according to the Quran.
[37] She also has been criticized by some ultra-conservative, right-wing preachers and puritan men for breaking gender roles in Islam, especially on her views about women teaching and preaching outside the home.