Syahirah Rasheed earned her PhD in Southeast Asian Studies from the National University of Singapore. Her PhD research was an interdisciplinary study of the history of bidan midwifery and a critical medical anthropology of medicalised childbirth in contemporary Singapore. 

She has an MA in Development Studies from the International Institute of Social Studies (Erasmus University Rotterdam), specialising in women, gender, and development. Her research fields are medical anthropology, sexual and reproductive health, and feminist epistemology.

As an affiliated fellow at KITLV, Syahirah is continuing her research in the connections between obstetric biomedicine and Malay women’s indigenous knowledges of sexuality and reproduction, as shown through the work of contemporary Muslim doulas (non-medical birth support workers). 

Selected Publications

Rasheed, Syahirah, 'Malay women’s narratives of gender-, class- and race-based obstetric iatrogenesis in Singapore', Asian Anthropology, 2025.

Rasheed, Syahirah & Mohamad, M., Sexuality and Islamic spirituality in early Malay writings: a textual history of sex and gender. London: IB Tauris, in press, August 2025.