Isabel Maria Cortesão Casimiro (born 14 January 1955) is a Mozambican sociologist, feminist, women's rights activist, and a former politician. She is a professor at the Centre of African Studies, Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo, Mozambique.
She is the founder of Fórum Mulher and Women and Law in Southern Africa Research and Education Trust. She was a FRELIMO Member of Parliament from 1995 to 1999.
Casimiro served as the President of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) from 2018 to 2023.
Isabel Maria Casimiro was born on 14 January 1955 in Iapala, a small village in Nampula Province, on the north-east coast of Mozambique. Her father was a medical doctor based at the railway station in Iapala. Her parents had moved to Mozambique in 1952, because they were members of the Portuguese Communist Party, which had been declared illegal by the government, so they were effectively "exiled" to what was then one of Portugal's overseas colonies.
Casimiro earned a doctorate in sociology from the University of Coimbra in Portugal, with additional academic training in history and development studies.
From 1995 to 1999 Casimiro was a Member of Parliament, representing FRELIMO, the Mozambique Liberation Front.
Since 1980, Casimiro has been a researcher and sociology professor in the Centre of African Studies at Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo, where she specialises in women's and human rights, feminist movements, development issues, and participatory democracy. She coordinates the Department of Development and Gender Studies.
Academic analyses have positioned her as a leading voice in Mozambican gender studies and described her as one of the pioneering figures alongside Ana Loforte shaping feminist scholarship and the study of gender relations in Mozambique.
Casimiro is a founder of the Women and Law in Southern Africa Research and Education Trust (WLSA), serving as its first national coordinator from 1990 to 1995 and later as WLSA Mozambique Board President since 2015. She also co-founded the Fórum Mulher, serving as its president from 2006 to 2015.
Casimiro also served as the President of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), a pan-African social science research organisation headquartered in Dakar, Senegal from 2018-2023.