How do sacred texts legitimise violence?
- Date: Monday 13 October 2025, 13:00 – 14:30
- Location: University of Leeds
- Cost: Free
Book talk with Professor Sarojini Nadar (Desmond Tutu Research Chair, University of the Western Cape)
Location: 12.21/12.25, Social Sciences Building, University of Leeds.
Professor Sarojini Nadar, a transdisciplinary researcher within the fields of gender and religion, will introduce and read excerpts from her new book, ‘Gender, Genocide, Gaza and the Book of Esther: Engaging Texts of Terror(ism) (Routledge, 2025)’.
The book offers a decolonial feminist reading of the biblical Book of Esther, showing how it participates in what Nadar terms ‘sacred economies of violence’ and ‘gendered theological necropolitics’. These frameworks illuminate how systems of religion and empire sacralise harm and mark certain bodies as disposable.