Twentieth

“My father died on the 20^th of February 1980.  He was 63 years old and I was 36 years old (it’s interesting – writing this now, I am noticing for the first time that our ages were transposed at the time, 6 before 3 for him and after 3 for me). As the oldest son of eight children, I suddenly became the formal “head of the family” to the Sudanese society outside of our home, though in fact our mother continued to be the real head of the family, as she always was when my father was alive. By the time she died in 1999, all her eight children (five men and three women) were married and had their own families. Neither of our parents had any school education whatsoever (our mother was illiterate), yet all of their children received university degrees, seven hold post-graduate degrees, three are university professors and one is a specialist orthopedic surgeon.” – Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na‘im

Bio: Dr. Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na‘im is the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Law and Director of the Center for International and Comparative Law at the Emory University School of Law. He is also Associated Professor in Emory College of Arts and Sciences, and Senior Fellow of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion of Emory Law School.