Female Islamic Religious Authority

This research article explores the dynamics of discrimination faced by Pakistani Muslim women in contemporary history regarding the issue of legitimacy of female imams and muezzins. Although there are no authoritative statements affirming that women cannot become imams within the religious scripture of Islam, women from Muslim communities around the world in general and from Pakistan in particular suffer under patriarchal structures and dynamics. This makes it difficult for women to assume imam and/or muezzin positions, as they are often ignored and denied basic opportunities to practice their religious rights such as offering prayers in the mosque. A transformative theoretical underpinning structures and constructs an understanding of the situation, with the help of scholarly interpretations within the framework of modern-day social interactions.

This chapter examines works dedicated to princesses of the Safavid dynasty, finding that the authors and translators of these works regularly portrayed the princesses as religious and temporal authorities, supplementing their being cast—those who were unmarried, in any case—as brides of the Twelfth Imam in other contexts, connecting their own authority with that of the Imam of the Age while also allowing them to maintain an autonomy, being free of obligations to an ordinary husband, that their peers could enjoy. The writers repeatedly styled the princesses as modern incarnations of Bilqis, the Queen of Sheba, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and furthermore granted them titles such as murawwij al-madhhab, “propagator of the sect,” which ordinarily were reserved for the Safavid kings. These perhaps surprising titles and epithets, which cannot be dismissed as frivolous hyperbole, indicate an acceptance of female members of the Safavid dynasty as participants in the divinely sanctioned sovereignty accorded to the Shahs.

The acceptance of female leadership in mosques and madrassas is a significant change from much historical practice, signalling the mainstream acceptance of some form of female Islamic authority in many places. This volume investigates the diverse range of female religious leadership present in contemporary Muslim communities in South, East and Central Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and North America, with chapters discussing its emergence, the limitations placed upon it, and its wider impact, as well as the physical and virtual spaces used by women to establish and consolidate their authority. It will be invaluable as a reference text, as it is the first to bring together analysis of female Islamic leadership in geographically and ideologically-diverse Muslim communities worldwide.

Table of contents
Preface
Author Biographies
Introduction: Islamic Authority and the Study of Female Religious Leaders, Hilary Kalmbach

SECTION I
SPACE FOR FEMALE AUTHORITY: MALE INVITATION, STATE INTERVENTION, AND FEMALE INITIATIVE
Introduction to Section I
1.1 Sources of Authority: Female Ahong and Qingzhen Nüsi (Women’s Mosques) in China, Maria Jaschok
1.2 Women Mosque Preachers and Spiritual Guides: Publicizing and Negotiating Women’s Religious Authority in Morocco, Margaret J. Rausch
1.3 Reshaping Religious Authority in Contemporary Turkey: State-Sponsored Female Preachers, Mona Hassan
1.4 From Qurʾānic Circles to the Internet: Gender Segregation and the Rise of Female Preachers in Saudi Arabia, Amélie Le Renard
1.5 The Life of Two Mujtahidahs: Female Religious Authority in Twentieth-Century Iran, Mirjam Künkler and Roja Fazaeli
1.6 The Qubaysīyyāt: The Growth of an International Muslim Women’s Revivalist Movement from Syria (1960–2008), Sarah Islam

SECTION II
ESTABLISHING FEMALE AUTHORITY: LIMITATIONS, SPACES, AND STRATEGIES FOR TEACHING AND PREACHING
2.1 Leading by Example? Women Madrasah Teachers in Rural North India, Patricia Jeffery, Roger Jeffery, and Craig Jeffrey
2.2 Thinking for Oneself? Forms and Elements of Religious Authority in Dutch Muslim Women’s Groups, Nathal M. Dessing
2.3 Celebrating Miss Muslim Pageants and Opposing Rock Concerts: Contrasting the Religious Authority and Leadership of Two Muslim Women in Kazan, N. R. Micinski
2.4 Textual and Ritual Command: Muslim Women as Keepers and Transmitters of Interpretive Domains in Contemporary Bosnia and Herzegovina, Catharina Raudvere
2.5 “She is always present”: Female Leadership and Informal Authority in a Swiss Muslim Women’s Association, Petra Bleisch Bouzar
2.6 Muslimahs’ Impact on and Acquisition of Islamic Religious Authority in Flanders, Els Vanderwaeren
2.7 Women, Leadership, and Participation in Mosques and Beyond: Notes from Stuttgart, Germany, Petra Kuppinger
2.8 Remembering Fāṭimah: New Means of Legitimizing Female Authority in Contemporary Shīʿī Discourse, Matthew Pierce

SECTION III
THE IMPACT OF AUTHORITY ON MUSLIM WOMEN, MUSLIM SOCIETIES, AND CONCEPTIONS OF ISLAMIC AUTHORITY
Introduction to Section III
3.1 Challenging from Within: Youth Associations and Female Leadership in Swedish Mosques, Pia Karlsson Minganti
3.2 Gender Strategy and Authority in Islamic Discourses: Female Preachers in Contemporary Egypt, Hiroko Minesaki
3.3 Translating Text to Context: Muslim Women Activists in Indonesia, Pieternella Van Doorn-Harder
3.4 Making Islam Relevant: Female Authority and Representation of Islam in Germany, Riem Spielhaus
3.5 Activism as Embodied Tafsīr: Negotiating Women’s Authority, Leadership, and Space in North America, Juliane Hammer
3.6 Women’s Rights to Mosque Space: Access and Participation in Cape Town Mosques, Uta Christina Lehmann

Conclusion: Female Leadership in Mosques: An Evolving Narrative, Masooda Bano

Glossary
Index

"More than thirty years have passed since the tragic death of Amina “Bint al-Hudà” al-Sadr (1937-1980), the renowned Iraqi ‘alimah, public intellectual, and social activist. Particularly following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s regime, her figure has acquired an increasing interest among Shi‘i female religious activists in Iraq and Iran and in the Shi‘i diaspora in the US and in Europe. The Euro-American academia also has shown some intermittent and sporadic interest in this figure. However, still little is actually known about the life and role played by this intriguing and unusual figure of the Shi‘i religious establishment during the 60s and 70s of the last century in Iraq.
On the basis of primary biographical written sources and of interviews with members of her family and of its inner circle, this paper addresses the figure of Bint al-Hudà in the framework of her peculiar relationship with her brother, the renowned scholar Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr (1935-1980). In particular, it advances the hypothesis that at least part of this relationship could be arguably explained through the prism of the relationship between a marja‘ al-taqlid (religious scholar recognized as source of emulation for Shi‘as in matters of religious law) and his wakils (representatives of a marja‘, they play a variety of roles as intermediaries between the marja‘ and his followers).
The research methodology consists in crosschecking and integrating data gained through prosopographical written sources with information provided by interviews with oral sources, conducted according to oral history criteria. The overall data are analyzed through an interdisciplinary approach centered on history and integrated with anthropology, sociology, and political sciences."

From the early 1970s until 2011, the Syrian shrine town of Sayyida Zaynab flourished as a minor centre of Shiʿi learning. It predominantly served Iraqi Shiʿi refugees, but also temporary visitors from Iran and the Gulf countries. The seminaries viewed it as their responsibility to draw in transient Shiʿa and turn them into students and loyal followers of important marājiʿ al-taqlīd or Shiʿi legal scholars who mainly reside in major centres of Shiʿi learning, such as Najaf, Karbala and Qom. While the seminaries in Sayyida Zaynab aimed at strengthening institutional affiliation among lay Shiʿa, they concurrently aided the questioning of authoritative religious edicts and opinions emanating from Iranian and Iraqi centres of learning and produced local religious authorities. This article examines two spheres in which central authority was challenged in the shrine town of Sayyida Zaynab. First, it was contested in seminaries where students and teachers debated legal rulings, and second, in contested public Muharram practices such as self-flagellation processions and the showing and selling of recorded laṭmiyyāt, which are chants performed during ritual mourning gatherings.

"The acceptance of female leadership in mosques and madrassas is a significant change from much historical practice, signalling the mainstream acceptance of some form of female Islamic authority in many places. This volume investigates the diverse range of female religious leadership present in contemporary Muslim communities in South, East and Central Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and North America, with chapters discussing its emergence, the limitations placed upon it, and its wider impact, as well as the physical and virtual spaces used by women to establish and consolidate their authority. It will be invaluable as a reference text, as it is the first to bring together analysis of female Islamic leadership in geographically and ideologically-diverse Muslim communities worldwide. Table of contents Preface Author Biographies Introduction: Islamic Authority and the Study of Female Religious Leaders, Hilary Kalmbach SECTION I SPACE FOR FEMALE AUTHORITY: MALE INVITATION, STATE INTERVENTION, AND FEMALE INITIATIVE Introduction to Section I 1.1 Sources of Authority: Female Ahong and Qingzhen Nüsi (Women’s Mosques) in China, Maria Jaschok 1.2 Women Mosque Preachers and Spiritual Guides: Publicizing and Negotiating Women’s Religious Authority in Morocco, Margaret J. Rausch 1.3 Reshaping Religious Authority in Contemporary Turkey: State-Sponsored Female Preachers, Mona Hassan 1.4 From Qurʾānic Circles to the Internet: Gender Segregation and the Rise of Female Preachers in Saudi Arabia, Amélie Le Renard 1.5 The Life of Two Mujtahidahs: Female Religious Authority in Twentieth-Century Iran, Mirjam Künkler and Roja Fazaeli 1.6 The Qubaysīyyāt: The Growth of an International Muslim Women’s Revivalist Movement from Syria (1960–2008), Sarah Islam SECTION II ESTABLISHING FEMALE AUTHORITY: LIMITATIONS, SPACES, AND STRATEGIES FOR TEACHING AND PREACHING 2.1 Leading by Example? Women Madrasah Teachers in Rural North India, Patricia Jeffery, Roger Jeffery, and Craig Jeffrey 2.2 Thinking for Oneself? Forms and Elements of Religious Authority in Dutch Muslim Women’s Groups, Nathal M. Dessing 2.3 Celebrating Miss Muslim Pageants and Opposing Rock Concerts: Contrasting the Religious Authority and Leadership of Two Muslim Women in Kazan, N. R. Micinski 2.4 Textual and Ritual Command: Muslim Women as Keepers and Transmitters of Interpretive Domains in Contemporary Bosnia and Herzegovina, Catharina Raudvere 2.5 “She is always present”: Female Leadership and Informal Authority in a Swiss Muslim Women’s Association, Petra Bleisch Bouzar 2.6 Muslimahs’ Impact on and Acquisition of Islamic Religious Authority in Flanders, Els Vanderwaeren 2.7 Women, Leadership, and Participation in Mosques and Beyond: Notes from Stuttgart, Germany, Petra Kuppinger 2.8 Remembering Fāṭimah: New Means of Legitimizing Female Authority in Contemporary Shīʿī Discourse, Matthew Pierce SECTION III THE IMPACT OF AUTHORITY ON MUSLIM WOMEN, MUSLIM SOCIETIES, AND CONCEPTIONS OF ISLAMIC AUTHORITY Introduction to Section III 3.1 Challenging from Within: Youth Associations and Female Leadership in Swedish Mosques, Pia Karlsson Minganti 3.2 Gender Strategy and Authority in Islamic Discourses: Female Preachers in Contemporary Egypt, Hiroko Minesaki 3.3 Translating Text to Context: Muslim Women Activists in Indonesia, Pieternella Van Doorn-Harder 3.4 Making Islam Relevant: Female Authority and Representation of Islam in Germany, Riem Spielhaus 3.5 Activism as Embodied Tafsīr: Negotiating Women’s Authority, Leadership, and Space in North America, Juliane Hammer 3.6 Women’s Rights to Mosque Space: Access and Participation in Cape Town Mosques, Uta Christina Lehmann Conclusion: Female Leadership in Mosques: An Evolving Narrative, Masooda Bano Glossary Index"

"The acceptance of female leadership in mosques and madrassas is a significant change from much historical practice, signalling the mainstream acceptance of some form of female Islamic authority in many places. This volume investigates the diverse range of female religious leadership present in contemporary Muslim communities in South, East and Central Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and North America, with chapters discussing its emergence, the limitations placed upon it, and its wider impact, as well as the physical and virtual spaces used by women to establish and consolidate their authority. It will be invaluable as a reference text, as it is the first to bring together analysis of female Islamic leadership in geographically and ideologically-diverse Muslim communities worldwide. Table of contents Preface Author Biographies Introduction: Islamic Authority and the Study of Female Religious Leaders, Hilary Kalmbach SECTION I SPACE FOR FEMALE AUTHORITY: MALE INVITATION, STATE INTERVENTION, AND FEMALE INITIATIVE Introduction to Section I 1.1 Sources of Authority: Female Ahong and Qingzhen Nüsi (Women’s Mosques) in China, Maria Jaschok 1.2 Women Mosque Preachers and Spiritual Guides: Publicizing and Negotiating Women’s Religious Authority in Morocco, Margaret J. Rausch 1.3 Reshaping Religious Authority in Contemporary Turkey: State-Sponsored Female Preachers, Mona Hassan 1.4 From Qurʾānic Circles to the Internet: Gender Segregation and the Rise of Female Preachers in Saudi Arabia, Amélie Le Renard 1.5 The Life of Two Mujtahidahs: Female Religious Authority in Twentieth-Century Iran, Mirjam Künkler and Roja Fazaeli 1.6 The Qubaysīyyāt: The Growth of an International Muslim Women’s Revivalist Movement from Syria (1960–2008), Sarah Islam SECTION II ESTABLISHING FEMALE AUTHORITY: LIMITATIONS, SPACES, AND STRATEGIES FOR TEACHING AND PREACHING 2.1 Leading by Example? Women Madrasah Teachers in Rural North India, Patricia Jeffery, Roger Jeffery, and Craig Jeffrey 2.2 Thinking for Oneself? Forms and Elements of Religious Authority in Dutch Muslim Women’s Groups, Nathal M. Dessing 2.3 Celebrating Miss Muslim Pageants and Opposing Rock Concerts: Contrasting the Religious Authority and Leadership of Two Muslim Women in Kazan, N. R. Micinski 2.4 Textual and Ritual Command: Muslim Women as Keepers and Transmitters of Interpretive Domains in Contemporary Bosnia and Herzegovina, Catharina Raudvere 2.5 “She is always present”: Female Leadership and Informal Authority in a Swiss Muslim Women’s Association, Petra Bleisch Bouzar 2.6 Muslimahs’ Impact on and Acquisition of Islamic Religious Authority in Flanders, Els Vanderwaeren 2.7 Women, Leadership, and Participation in Mosques and Beyond: Notes from Stuttgart, Germany, Petra Kuppinger 2.8 Remembering Fāṭimah: New Means of Legitimizing Female Authority in Contemporary Shīʿī Discourse, Matthew Pierce SECTION III THE IMPACT OF AUTHORITY ON MUSLIM WOMEN, MUSLIM SOCIETIES, AND CONCEPTIONS OF ISLAMIC AUTHORITY Introduction to Section III 3.1 Challenging from Within: Youth Associations and Female Leadership in Swedish Mosques, Pia Karlsson Minganti 3.2 Gender Strategy and Authority in Islamic Discourses: Female Preachers in Contemporary Egypt, Hiroko Minesaki 3.3 Translating Text to Context: Muslim Women Activists in Indonesia, Pieternella Van Doorn-Harder 3.4 Making Islam Relevant: Female Authority and Representation of Islam in Germany, Riem Spielhaus 3.5 Activism as Embodied Tafsīr: Negotiating Women’s Authority, Leadership, and Space in North America, Juliane Hammer 3.6 Women’s Rights to Mosque Space: Access and Participation in Cape Town Mosques, Uta Christina Lehmann Conclusion: Female Leadership in Mosques: An Evolving Narrative, Masooda Bano Glossary Index"