The Quran tells the story vividly, particularly the scene in which the master’s wife attempts to seduce Yusuf. So vividly, in fact, that one Muslim scholar forbade women to learn it. Luckily, Akram disagreed. The fatwa against reading sura 12 was unsound, he said, likening it to other fatwas designed to limit women’s rights, like the one banning women from learning to write on the grounds that they could write love letters, or from living on high floors lest they be seen from outside. “Nothing in the Quran is for the men or for the women,” he emphasized, peering out at the crowd. “It’s for men
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