Fatima.Mernessi_The-Forgotten-Queens-of-Islam-EN

Khayzuran: Courtesan or Head of State? 67
your house?' 56 Humayra, referring to her very white skin made
radiant by a light sunburn, was the loving pet name that the Prophet
gave 'A'isha. More than a century later, Khayzuran, like 'A'isha
but in different circumstances, found herself confronted by an
impassable threshold.
A woman head of state will be the one who will assert her right
to exist beyond the threshold of her house. She will seek to make
herself visible in the most eminently public territory: the minbar,
the pulpit of the mosque, where divine power and earthly power
are in intimate communion and manifest themselves one through
the other, one in the other.