Women as imams
Encyclopedia
There is a current controversy among Muslim
s regarding the circumstances in which women may act as imam
s—that is, lead a congregation in salah (prayer). (Note that there are many types of Islamic religious leaders
aside from imams, and Muslim women have featured as theological figures throughout the history of Islam.) Some schools of Islamic thought
make exceptions for tarawih
(optional Ramadan
prayers) or for a congregation consisting only of close relatives.
Historically, certain sects considered it acceptable for a woman to be imam. This was true not just in the Arab heartland of early Islam, but also in China hundreds of years ago. The debate has been reactivated recently, arguing that the spirit of the Koran and the letter of a disputed hadith
indicate that women should be able to lead mixed congregations as well as single-sex ones, and that the prohibition of this developed as a result of sexism in the medieval environment and patriarchal interpretations of religious texts, not part of or reflective of true Islam.
, the traditions attributed to Muhammad
; the sunnah
, his actions, including but not limited to hadith; and the principle of ijma
, consensus.
The only hadith that unequivocally states that women may not lead mixed congregations is Ibn Majah (Kitab iqamat is-salat was-sunnati fiha) #1134, narrated through Jabir ibn Abdullah
: "A woman may not lead a man in Prayer, nor may a Bedouin
lead a believer of the Muhajirun
or a corrupt person lead a committed Muslim
in Prayer."
An indirectly relevant hadith is widely considered to be crucial, since the imam stands at the front of the congregation. The hadith in question is #881 of Sahih Muslim
: "Abu Huraira said: The best rows for men are the first rows, as opposed to the last ones, and the best rows for women are the last ones as opposed to the first ones."
The hadith of Umm Waraqa has given rise to debates among Islamic leaders on whether it is acceptable or not for women to lead prayers, including mixed-gender congregational prayer. Umm Waraqa bint Abdallah, an Ansari
woman, who was well versed in the Quran, was instructed by Muhammad to lead ahl dariha, which consisted of both men and women, in prayer. The Arabic phrase means "the people of her home", but the ambiguity hangs on the exact translation of dar, "home", which can refer to one’s residence, neighborhood, or village. The "people of Umm Waraqa’s home" were so numerous that Muhammad appointed a muezzin
to call them to prayer. Umm Waraqa was one of the few to hand down the Quran before it was recorded in writing.
The use of the word dar in the hadith, when speaking of where the prayer was held, has resulted in different interpretations. A general translation is "area", constituting the community around where Umm Waraqa lived. This idea is not accepted by many scholars. Another translation is dar is "household", which would mean that Umm Waraqa led prayers in her home. Who was she leading? Imam Zaid presents three possibilities: the two servants of her household and the mu'ahdhin, or the women of her surrounding “area”, or only the women of her household. Each of these possibilities requires certain assumptions, but the most accepted is that Umm Waraqa was leading the women of her household, thus leading to the conclusion that women are allowed to lead prayers of all-female congregations. Zaid insists that if the Prophet established a mosque in the household of a man, which was not uncommon, Itban b. Malik, then he must also have set up women-only congregations.
With regard to women leading congregations of women, however, several hadith report that two of Muhammad's wives, Aisha
and Umm Salamah, did so, and as a result most madhhabs support this. According to Qaradawi:
All of the hadiths state that the given woman leads the other women in prayers while standing among them in the same row, and not standing on the first row of the prayers as imams do. They further state that they were among only women, not male worshippers.
Aside from the hadith, there are other sources to consider. The sunnah is a more general source of precedent; it is usually considered to count against women leading mixed congregations, as there are no reports of it happening in Muhammad's time, unless, as Amina Wadud
suggested, the aforementioned Umm Waraqah hadith is interpreted to apply to her town rather than to her household alone.
A third source of precedent is the principle of ijma
—consensus—supported by the hadith "My community will never agree upon an error." This is also generally quoted against it, since the consensus of the traditional jurists is overwhelmingly against it; however, supporters of the idea argue that this consensus is not universal.
s—Shafi'i
s, Hanafi
s, and Hanbali
s—allow this, although Hanafis consider it to be makrooh, a disliked act. (The fourth division, Maliki
s, do not permit women to lead women in prayer.) Where it is allowed, the woman stands among the congregation in the front row, instead of alone in front of the congregation. In 2000, six marja
s among Iran
's Shia leadership declared that they too allowed women to lead a woman-only congregation, reversing a previous ban in that country.
An unusual feature of Islam in China
is the existence of nüsi, mosque
s solely for women. The imams and all the congregants are women and men are not allowed into the buildings. A handful of women have been trained as imams in order to serve these mosques. However, in at least some communities where these mosques operated, women were not allowed in the men's mosques. In recent years, efforts have been made to establish similar mosques in India and Iran.
s permitted that a woman leads men in taraweeh prayers. A minority of the Hanbali school allow women to lead men in tarāwīh
in certain conditions, including the requirement that she remain behind the men during prayers. This is so that the men do not have to look at a woman ahead of them, which might make them aroused. According to Imam an-Nawawi, “If a woman leads a man or men in a congregational prayer, the prayer of the men is invalid. As for her prayer, and the prayer of the women praying with her, it is sound.”
Within the household, if no qualified man is present, is the one exception for women to lead men in prayers. Modern Islamic scholars such as Dr. Yusuf Al-Qaradawi
, based on the Umm Waraqah hadith mentioned above, consider it permissible for a knowledgeable woman to lead mixed prayers within her own household, as he considers this to largely obviate the danger of the men being aroused by her presence.
In the early years of Islam, the Haruriyyah sect, a branch of the Kharijites
movement, founded by Habib ibn-Yazīd al-Harūrī, held that it was permissible to entrust the imamate to a woman if she were able to carry out the required duties. In 699 A.D. (77 A.H.), the founder's wife, Ghazāla al-Harūriyya
, even led her male warriors in prayer in Kufa
after having controlled the city for a day, following the example of Abu Sufyan's daughter Juwayriyya at the Battle of Yarmuk. Not only did she lead Muslim men in prayer, she recited the two longest chapters in the Quran during that prayer.
Well-known early jurists — including Al-Tabari (838–932), historian, exegete and founder of a now defunct juristic school; Abu Thawr
(764–854), mufti of Iraq; Al-Muzani (791–878); and Ibn Arabi
(1165–1240) — considered the practice permissible at least for optional (nafl salat
) prayers. Al-Muthani (d. 878), student of Shafii and contributor to the establishment of the Shafii juristic school,allowed women to unconditionally lead men in prayer. However, the views of these scholars are not accepted by any major surviving group.
A few fatwas exist permitting women to lead a mixed gender congregation regardless of familial relationship. For instance, Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl recommends that the placement of the imam be made with greater modesty in mind for a female imam. Some traditional scholars caution against Yusuf Qaradawi's methodology and regard him as excessively lenient as he does not limit himself to the positions of the four Sunni schools of fiqh
'.
Adding to the arguments in favor of woman-led prayer of mixed congregations, Laury Silvers and Ahmed Elewa recently published a detailed article in the Journal of Law and Religion arguing that female imams are permissible in all circumstances. Their abstract reads:
i police. The incident occurred at one of the biggest mosques in the island state, in front of 7000 worshippers, on the last Friday of Ramadan
in 2004. The would-be khatib, wearing full male dress with a false beard and moustache, sat on the minbar
just before speaking, at which point some worshippers realised that the new imam was a woman in disguise. They and the mosque's imam, Sheikh
Adnan Al-Qattan, handed the 40 year old woman over to the police.
have been active in the woman-led prayer movement since 2004. The United Muslim Association (UMA) is committed to having women deliver the khutbah and lead the salah.
In that year, 20-year-old Maryam Mirza delivered the second half of the Eid al-Fitr khutbah at the Etobicoke mosque in Toronto
, run by the UMA.
Later the same year, Yasmin Shadeer led the night isha
prayer with her male and female congregants. - the first recorded occasion in contemporary times where a woman led a congregation in prayer in a mosque.
In April 2005, Raheel Raza
led Toronto's first woman-led mixed-gender Friday service, delivering the khutbah and leading the prayers of the congregation. The event was organized by the Muslim Canadian Congress
to celebrate Earth Day
, and was held in the backyard of the downtown Toronto home of activist Tarek Fatah
. The former Mufti of Marseille, Soheib Bencheikh
, requested that either Raza or Pamela Taylor lead him in prayer during a visit to Canada in February 2006. The prayers were sponsored by the Muslim Canadian Congress and held in a private venue with a mixed gender congregation. In 2008, Taylor, a Muslim convert since 1986, gave the Friday khutbah and led the mixed-gender prayers at the UMA Toronto mosque at the invitation of the Muslim Canadian Congress
on Canada Day
. In addition to leading the prayers, Taylor also gave a sermon on the importance of equality among people regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, and/or disability.
From 2008, the Noor Cultural Centre
in Toronto has included women on their Board of Khatibs, and women and men alternate giving the call to prayer each week . Women regularly give full length sermons prior to the second adhan
, with a male khatib delivering the Arabic portion in brief after the second call. In 2009, academic Laury Silvers and activist lawyer El-Farouk Khaki
founded the El-Tawhid Juma Circle in downtown Toronto. The circle is gender-equal, homosexual-friendly, and religiously non-discriminatory. All Muslims are welcome to lead the prayer and give the sermon. It helps set up similar circles when asked; the first sister circle was founded in Washington D.C., in early 2011 (see USA section below).
Muslims for Progressive Values Canada, an affiliate of Muslims for Progressive Values USA, founded in 2010 by Shahla Khan Salter (chair) leads mixed congregational prayers in Ottawa, Canada. Prayers for MPV Canada have been led by women, including Farhat Rehman and by Zeinab A.
The El Tawhid Unity Mosque in Toronto founded by Dr. Laury Silvers regularly conducts Friday prayers led by women in a mixed congregation. The person delivering the khutbah may be a woman or a man.
is the presence of female-only mosques. Among the Hui people
, but not other Muslim ethnic minorities such as the Uyghurs
, Quranic schools for girls evolved into woman-only mosques and women acted as imams as early as 1820. These imams are called Nu Ahong, and they guide female Muslims in worship and prayer.
had started training women as imams.
heard their first female-led Jum'ah khutbah in 1994 when African-American Islamic studies professor Amina Wadud
spoke at the Claremont Main Road Mosque in Cape Town
, an experience she discusses in Inside the Gender Jihad. Since then, both that mosque and Masjidul Islam in Johannesburg
often have women speakers for jum'ah. Amongst them are Ai'sha Jennifer Roberts, Farhana Ismail, Moefidah Jaffer and Zakiya Seguro.
From 1995 to 1997, a congregation in Johannesburg met every Friday for the jum'ah prayer, and every night in Ramadan for the tarāwīh prayer, in a building owned by the Muslim Youth Movement of South Africa (MYM). The khutbah was delivered by either a male or female khatib and the imams who led the prayer also included men and women. Farid Esack
refers to this in his book Qur'an, Liberation and Pluralism. One of the prime movers behind this congregation was Muslim women's rights activist Shamima Shaikh
. In January 1998, as per her wishes, one of her four funeral prayers was led by a woman friend, Farhana Ismail.
In 2003, a new venue for Eid prayer was established in Durban
, designed to allow families to attend the Eid prayer together in a pleasant and comfortable atmosphere. It is run by Taking Islam to the People. At each Eid salaah there are two khutbahs delivered, one by a male and one by a female. Over the seven years from 2003–2010, fourteen women have offered khutbah, including Dr. Lubna Nadvi, Zaytun Suleyman, Fatima Seedat, Fatima Hendricks and Dr Mariam Seedat.
In 2005, Farhana Ismail first officiated at a nikah
(wedding) ceremony. She has trained other women to do so; since 2006, Fatima Seedat has officiated at three such ceremonies.
In May 2007, as a guest of the Muslim Youth Movement, the American visitor, Laury Silvers, gave the Friday sermon at the Claremont Road Mosque in Cape Town and an associated mosque in Johannesburg.
have been some of the greatest supporters of the woman-led prayer movement. Spanish imam Abdennur Prado responded immediately to the controversial prayer by American Amina Wadud
(see USA section) with a supportive legal opinion. He was one of the organisers of the October 2005 Islamic feminism
conference in Barcelona, the first attended by men and women from around the world, at which Wadud led a mixed gender congregational prayer. In 2010, another visiting academic, South African Dr. Sa'diyya Sheikh, gave the khutbah and led the Friday prayer for a mixed congregation.
are conscious of their influence in modernising Islam. The state-run mosques have trained hundreds of women as vaizes, a term translated by the BBC
as "senior imams" and by the Washington Times as "female preachers". The WT says, "As well as being preachers, women now have the right to lead groups on the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, and 15 Turkish provinces have women serving as deputy muftis — specialists on religious law who monitor the work of imams in mosques. Significantly, given that 70 percent of requests for advice come from women, the assistant muftis have the right to issue fatwas, or religious opinions." According to the Christian Science Monitor, in 2005 "Diyanet
, a government body that oversees the country's mosques and trains religious leaders, added 150 women preachers across Turkey" and has moved on to "selecting a group of women who will serve as deputies to muftis, or expounders of religious law. From this post, they'll monitor the work being done by imams in local mosques, particularly as it relates to women.".
had their first chance to hear a female-led mixed-gender salah in 2008, when the American scholar Amina Wadud
performed the Friday prayer at Oxford's Wolfson College
. In 2010 Raheel Raza
became the first Muslim-born woman to lead a mixed-gender British congregation through Friday prayers.
led a congregation in Friday prayer and gave a sermon in New York City. Another woman sounded the call to prayer, while not wearing a headscarf, and no curtain divided the men and women. This was not the first woman-led mixed-gender congregational prayer (see the above noted events), but it was the first to gain national and international attention. See Amina Wadud#Friday prayer for fuller information.
The Progressive Muslim Union
followed the Wadud prayer with a woman-led prayer initiative. The initiative sought to bring together the varied progressive opinions on the prayer as well as engage more conservative Muslims by encouraging further debate, highlighting legal opinions in support of the prayer (as well as giving space to the overwhelming negative opinions), facilitating Muslims who would like to organize future prayers, and documenting those events as they heard of them. Progressives and others sympathetic to bringing about a transformation of gender privilege in Islam continue to work for the establishment of woman-led prayer.
Many perceived the Wadud prayer to be an inevitable reaction to the deplorable situation of women in mosques in North America. The attention garnered by the event forced more conservative Muslim organizations to publicly acknowledge the situation and call for changes. ISNA
responded with guidelines for women-friendly mosques. Scholars such as Imam Zaid Shakir and Dr. Louay M. Safi
have been calling attention to and working to change mosque conditions for years. Progressives and others would argue, though, that mosque conditions are merely a symptom of a widespread sense of male entitlement following centuries of male privilege in the intellectual and political power centers of Islam.
Women continue to lead prayers in the United States in their communities with or without media coverage: Nakia Jackson led Eid prayers in 2006 and 2007, with Laury Silvers giving the khutba.
Since early 2006, Muslims for Progressive Values has had a continuous gender-equal prayer space in West Hollywood, California
. Both men and women are allowed to lead prayers and deliver a khutba. Although congregants may choose to position themselves wherever they like, there is no gender segregation policy during prayer. The first dedicated gender-equal prayer space in the United States was founded by Fatima Thompson and Imam Daayiee Abdullah in Washington D.C., as a sister mosque to the El-Tawhid Juma Circle founded two years previously in Toronto (see above).
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
s regarding the circumstances in which women may act as imam
Imam
An imam is an Islamic leadership position, often the worship leader of a mosque and the Muslim community. Similar to spiritual leaders, the imam is the one who leads Islamic worship services. More often, the community turns to the mosque imam if they have a religious question...
s—that is, lead a congregation in salah (prayer). (Note that there are many types of Islamic religious leaders
Islamic religious leaders
Islamic religious leaders have traditionally been people who, as part of the clerisy, mosque, or government, performed a prominent role within their community or nation...
aside from imams, and Muslim women have featured as theological figures throughout the history of Islam.) Some schools of Islamic thought
Islamic schools and branches
Muslims are basically divided in two major factions, Sunnis and Shias, that are further divided into various Schools of Jurisprudence and orders of Imamate. All other movements within such as Salafi, Modernists, the Mystical Sufi Orders, Deobandi and Barelvi are either Sunni or Shia or both...
make exceptions for tarawih
Tarawih
Tarawih refers to extra congregational prayers performed by Muslims at night in the Islamic month of Ramadan. They are not compulsory; however, many Muslims pray these prayers in the night during Ramadan...
(optional Ramadan
Ramadan
Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, which lasts 29 or 30 days. It is the Islamic month of fasting, in which participating Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking and sex during daylight hours and is intended to teach Muslims about patience, spirituality, humility and...
prayers) or for a congregation consisting only of close relatives.
Historically, certain sects considered it acceptable for a woman to be imam. This was true not just in the Arab heartland of early Islam, but also in China hundreds of years ago. The debate has been reactivated recently, arguing that the spirit of the Koran and the letter of a disputed hadith
Hadith
The term Hadīth is used to denote a saying or an act or tacit approval or criticism ascribed either validly or invalidly to the Islamic prophet Muhammad....
indicate that women should be able to lead mixed congregations as well as single-sex ones, and that the prohibition of this developed as a result of sexism in the medieval environment and patriarchal interpretations of religious texts, not part of or reflective of true Islam.
Precedents
The Quran does not address this issue; relevant precedents are therefore sought for in the hadithHadith
The term Hadīth is used to denote a saying or an act or tacit approval or criticism ascribed either validly or invalidly to the Islamic prophet Muhammad....
, the traditions attributed to Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
; the sunnah
Sunnah
The word literally means a clear, well trodden, busy and plain surfaced road. In the discussion of the sources of religion, Sunnah denotes the practice of Prophet Muhammad that he taught and practically instituted as a teacher of the sharī‘ah and the best exemplar...
, his actions, including but not limited to hadith; and the principle of ijma
Ijma
Ijmāʿ is an Arabic term referring to the consensus of the Muslim community. Various schools of thought within Islamic jurisprudence may define this consensus as that of the first generation of Muslims only; the consensus of the first three generations of Muslims; the consensus of the jurists...
, consensus.
The only hadith that unequivocally states that women may not lead mixed congregations is Ibn Majah (Kitab iqamat is-salat was-sunnati fiha) #1134, narrated through Jabir ibn Abdullah
Jabir ibn Abdullah
Jabir ibn Abdullah is the name of:*Jabir ibn Abd-Allah , a prominent companion of Muhammad and his descendants, the Shi'a Imams*Jaber I Al-Sabah , son of Abdullah bin Sabah...
: "A woman may not lead a man in Prayer, nor may a Bedouin
Bedouin
The Bedouin are a part of a predominantly desert-dwelling Arab ethnic group traditionally divided into tribes or clans, known in Arabic as ..-Etymology:...
lead a believer of the Muhajirun
Muhajirun
Muhajirun are the early, initial Muslims who followed Muhammad on his Hijra . The early Muslims from Medina are called the Ansar .-List:*Muhammad*Ali*Umar *Abu Bakr .*Salman the Persian*Bilal ibn Ribah...
or a corrupt person lead a committed Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
in Prayer."
An indirectly relevant hadith is widely considered to be crucial, since the imam stands at the front of the congregation. The hadith in question is #881 of Sahih Muslim
Sahih Muslim
Sahih Muslim is one of the Six major collections of the hadith in Sunni Islam, oral traditions relating to the words and deeds of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad. It is the second most authentic hadith collection after Sahih Al-Bukhari, and is highly acclaimed by Sunni Muslims...
: "Abu Huraira said: The best rows for men are the first rows, as opposed to the last ones, and the best rows for women are the last ones as opposed to the first ones."
The hadith of Umm Waraqa has given rise to debates among Islamic leaders on whether it is acceptable or not for women to lead prayers, including mixed-gender congregational prayer. Umm Waraqa bint Abdallah, an Ansari
Ansari (nisbat)
Ansari is a nisbat or second name common in South Asia and Middle East. It originates from Ansar the Medinan people that helped Islamic prophet Muhammad when he migrated from Mecca to Medina. Ansari is also used as a surname by the large Momin community of North India, Nepal and Pakistan...
woman, who was well versed in the Quran, was instructed by Muhammad to lead ahl dariha, which consisted of both men and women, in prayer. The Arabic phrase means "the people of her home", but the ambiguity hangs on the exact translation of dar, "home", which can refer to one’s residence, neighborhood, or village. The "people of Umm Waraqa’s home" were so numerous that Muhammad appointed a muezzin
Muezzin
A muezzin , or muzim, is the chosen person at a mosque who leads the call to prayer at Friday services and the five daily times for prayer from one of the mosque's minarets; in most modern mosques, electronic amplification aids the muezzin in his task.The professional muezzin is chosen for his...
to call them to prayer. Umm Waraqa was one of the few to hand down the Quran before it was recorded in writing.
The use of the word dar in the hadith, when speaking of where the prayer was held, has resulted in different interpretations. A general translation is "area", constituting the community around where Umm Waraqa lived. This idea is not accepted by many scholars. Another translation is dar is "household", which would mean that Umm Waraqa led prayers in her home. Who was she leading? Imam Zaid presents three possibilities: the two servants of her household and the mu'ahdhin, or the women of her surrounding “area”, or only the women of her household. Each of these possibilities requires certain assumptions, but the most accepted is that Umm Waraqa was leading the women of her household, thus leading to the conclusion that women are allowed to lead prayers of all-female congregations. Zaid insists that if the Prophet established a mosque in the household of a man, which was not uncommon, Itban b. Malik, then he must also have set up women-only congregations.
With regard to women leading congregations of women, however, several hadith report that two of Muhammad's wives, Aisha
Aisha
Aisha bint Abu Bakr also transcribed as was Muhammad's favorite wife...
and Umm Salamah, did so, and as a result most madhhabs support this. According to Qaradawi:
- The hadith of `A’ishah and Umm Salamah (may Allah be pleased with them). `Abdur-Raziq (5086), Ad-Daraqutni (1/404) and Al-Bayhaqi (3/131) reported from the narration of Abu Hazim Maysarah ibn Habib from Ra’itah Al-Hanafiyyah from `A’ishah that she led women in Prayer and stood among them in an obligatory Prayer. Moreover, Ibn Abi Shaybah (2/89) reported from the chain of narrators of Ibn Abi Layla from `Ata’ that `A’ishah used to say the Adhan, the Iqamah, and lead women in Prayer while standing among them in the same row. Al-Hakim also reported the same hadith from the chain of narrators of Layth Ibn Abi Sulaim from `Ata’, and the wording of the hadith mentioned here is Al-Hakim’s.
- Furthermore, Ash-Shafi`i (315), Ibn Abi Shaybah (88/2) and `Abdur-Raziq (5082) reported from two chains of narrators that report the narration of `Ammar Ad-Dahni in which he stated that a woman from his tribe named Hujayrah narrated that Umm Salamh used to lead women in Prayer while standing among them in the same row.
- The wording of `Abdur-Raziq for the same hadith is as follows: “Umm Salamah led us (women) in the `Asr Prayer and stood among us (in the same row).”
- In addition, Al-Hafiz said in Ad-Dirayah (1/169), “Muhammad ibn Al-Husain reported from the narration of Ibrahim An-Nakh`i that `A’ishah used to lead women in Prayer during the month of Ramadan while standing among them in the same row.
- Further, `Abdur-Raziq reported (5083) from the narration of Ibrahim ibn Muhammad from Dawud ibn Al-Husain from `Ikrimah from Ibn `Abbas that the latter said, “A woman can lead women in Prayer while standing between them.”
All of the hadiths state that the given woman leads the other women in prayers while standing among them in the same row, and not standing on the first row of the prayers as imams do. They further state that they were among only women, not male worshippers.
Aside from the hadith, there are other sources to consider. The sunnah is a more general source of precedent; it is usually considered to count against women leading mixed congregations, as there are no reports of it happening in Muhammad's time, unless, as Amina Wadud
Amina Wadud
Amina Wadud is an American scholar of Islam with a progressive focus on Qur'an exegesis . As an Islamic feminist, she has addressed mixed-sex congregations, giving a sermon in South Africa in 1994, and leading Friday prayers in the United States in 2005...
suggested, the aforementioned Umm Waraqah hadith is interpreted to apply to her town rather than to her household alone.
A third source of precedent is the principle of ijma
Ijma
Ijmāʿ is an Arabic term referring to the consensus of the Muslim community. Various schools of thought within Islamic jurisprudence may define this consensus as that of the first generation of Muslims only; the consensus of the first three generations of Muslims; the consensus of the jurists...
—consensus—supported by the hadith "My community will never agree upon an error." This is also generally quoted against it, since the consensus of the traditional jurists is overwhelmingly against it; however, supporters of the idea argue that this consensus is not universal.
Women-only congregations
Schools differ on whether a woman may be imam (leader) of a jama'ah (congregational) prayer if the congregation consists of women alone. Three of the four Sunni madhhabMadhhab
is a Muslim school of law or fiqh . In the first 150 years of Islam, there were many such "schools". In fact, several of the Sahābah, or contemporary "companions" of Muhammad, are credited with founding their own...
s—Shafi'i
Shafi'i
The Shafi'i madhhab is one of the schools of fiqh, or religious law, within the Sunni branch of Islam. The Shafi'i school of fiqh is named after Imām ash-Shafi'i.-Principles:...
s, Hanafi
Hanafi
The Hanafi school is one of the four Madhhab in jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. The Hanafi madhhab is named after the Persian scholar Abu Hanifa an-Nu‘man ibn Thābit , a Tabi‘i whose legal views were preserved primarily by his two most important disciples, Abu Yusuf and Muhammad al-Shaybani...
s, and Hanbali
Hanbali
The Hanbali school is one the schools of Fiqh or religious law within Sunni Islam. The jurisprudence school traces back to Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal but was institutionalized by his students. Hanbali jurisprudence is considered very strict and conservative, especially regarding questions of dogma...
s—allow this, although Hanafis consider it to be makrooh, a disliked act. (The fourth division, Maliki
Maliki
The ' madhhab is one of the schools of Fiqh or religious law within Sunni Islam. It is the second-largest of the four schools, followed by approximately 25% of Muslims, mostly in North Africa, West Africa, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and in some parts of Saudi Arabia...
s, do not permit women to lead women in prayer.) Where it is allowed, the woman stands among the congregation in the front row, instead of alone in front of the congregation. In 2000, six marja
Marja
Marja , also known as a marja-i taqlid or marja dini , literally means "Source to Imitate/Follow" or "Religious Reference"...
s among Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
's Shia leadership declared that they too allowed women to lead a woman-only congregation, reversing a previous ban in that country.
An unusual feature of Islam in China
Islam in China
Throughout the history of Islam in China, Chinese Muslims have influenced the course of Chinese history. Chinese Muslims have been in China for the last 1,400 years of continuous interaction with Chinese society...
is the existence of nüsi, mosque
Mosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
s solely for women. The imams and all the congregants are women and men are not allowed into the buildings. A handful of women have been trained as imams in order to serve these mosques. However, in at least some communities where these mosques operated, women were not allowed in the men's mosques. In recent years, efforts have been made to establish similar mosques in India and Iran.
Mixed-gender congregations
Three Sunni schools accept that women can lead other women in prayer; however none of them see it as acceptable to lead men in prayers. In addition, the HanbaliHanbali
The Hanbali school is one the schools of Fiqh or religious law within Sunni Islam. The jurisprudence school traces back to Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal but was institutionalized by his students. Hanbali jurisprudence is considered very strict and conservative, especially regarding questions of dogma...
s permitted that a woman leads men in taraweeh prayers. A minority of the Hanbali school allow women to lead men in tarāwīh
Tarawih
Tarawih refers to extra congregational prayers performed by Muslims at night in the Islamic month of Ramadan. They are not compulsory; however, many Muslims pray these prayers in the night during Ramadan...
in certain conditions, including the requirement that she remain behind the men during prayers. This is so that the men do not have to look at a woman ahead of them, which might make them aroused. According to Imam an-Nawawi, “If a woman leads a man or men in a congregational prayer, the prayer of the men is invalid. As for her prayer, and the prayer of the women praying with her, it is sound.”
Within the household, if no qualified man is present, is the one exception for women to lead men in prayers. Modern Islamic scholars such as Dr. Yusuf Al-Qaradawi
Yusuf al-Qaradawi
Yusuf al-Qaradawi is a controversial Egyptian Islamic theologian. He is best known for his programme, ash-Shariah wal-Hayat , broadcast on Al Jazeera, which has an estimated audience of 60 million worldwide...
, based on the Umm Waraqah hadith mentioned above, consider it permissible for a knowledgeable woman to lead mixed prayers within her own household, as he considers this to largely obviate the danger of the men being aroused by her presence.
In the early years of Islam, the Haruriyyah sect, a branch of the Kharijites
Kharijites
Kharijites is a general term embracing various Muslims who, while initially supporting the authority of the final Rashidun Caliph Ali ibn Abi Talib, the son-in-law and cousin of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, then later rejected his leadership...
movement, founded by Habib ibn-Yazīd al-Harūrī, held that it was permissible to entrust the imamate to a woman if she were able to carry out the required duties. In 699 A.D. (77 A.H.), the founder's wife, Ghazāla al-Harūriyya
Ghazala al-Haruriyya
Ghazāla al-Harūriyya was the wife of Habib ibn-Yazīd al-Harūrī, founder of the Harūriyya sect of Kharijite Islam, which held that it is permissible to entrust the imamate to a woman if she is able to carry out the required duties....
, even led her male warriors in prayer in Kufa
Kufa
Kufa is a city in Iraq, about south of Baghdad, and northeast of Najaf. It is located on the banks of the Euphrates River. The estimated population in 2003 was 110,000....
after having controlled the city for a day, following the example of Abu Sufyan's daughter Juwayriyya at the Battle of Yarmuk. Not only did she lead Muslim men in prayer, she recited the two longest chapters in the Quran during that prayer.
Well-known early jurists — including Al-Tabari (838–932), historian, exegete and founder of a now defunct juristic school; Abu Thawr
Abu Thawr
Abu Thawr , in full Ibrhim bin Khalid Abu Thawr, was an early scholar of Islam. He taught that women could serve as Imams.A personal school was built of the followers of Abu Thawr.-Sources:**...
(764–854), mufti of Iraq; Al-Muzani (791–878); and Ibn Arabi
Ibn Arabi
Ibn ʿArabī was an Andalusian Moorish Sufi mystic and philosopher. His full name was Abū 'Abdillāh Muḥammad ibn 'Alī ibn Muḥammad ibn `Arabī .-Biography:...
(1165–1240) — considered the practice permissible at least for optional (nafl salat
Nafl salat
Nafilah salah is a type of optional salah in Islam. Like Sunnah salat, they are not considered obligatory but are thought to confer extra benefit on the person performing them. For example, offering Duha prayers.-Ishraq prayer:...
) prayers. Al-Muthani (d. 878), student of Shafii and contributor to the establishment of the Shafii juristic school,allowed women to unconditionally lead men in prayer. However, the views of these scholars are not accepted by any major surviving group.
A few fatwas exist permitting women to lead a mixed gender congregation regardless of familial relationship. For instance, Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl recommends that the placement of the imam be made with greater modesty in mind for a female imam. Some traditional scholars caution against Yusuf Qaradawi's methodology and regard him as excessively lenient as he does not limit himself to the positions of the four Sunni schools of fiqh
Fiqh
Fiqh is Islamic jurisprudence. Fiqh is an expansion of the code of conduct expounded in the Quran, often supplemented by tradition and implemented by the rulings and interpretations of Islamic jurists....
'.
Adding to the arguments in favor of woman-led prayer of mixed congregations, Laury Silvers and Ahmed Elewa recently published a detailed article in the Journal of Law and Religion arguing that female imams are permissible in all circumstances. Their abstract reads:
- This paper, written five years after the Wadud prayer, presents a survey and analysis of the various responses to female led mixed-gender congregational prayers as well as a legal argument for its default permissibility. We show that, in interpreting the Hadiths on woman-led prayer, Sunni schools of law hold a range of opinions on its permissibility. We discuss how Muslim jurists consider historical needs in their rulings, the role of female modesty in this debate, and the nature of juristic consensus. We present our own argument that unrestricted female prayer leadership is legal by default rather than an innovation as many critics have charged. Finally, we set out our own different positions on the propriety of Muslim women asserting their inclusion in the current situation.
Bahrain
A woman disguised as a man attempted to deliver a Jum'ah khutbah but was detected by members of the congregation and arrested by the BahrainBahrain
' , officially the Kingdom of Bahrain , is a small island state near the western shores of the Persian Gulf. It is ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family. The population in 2010 stood at 1,214,705, including 235,108 non-nationals. Formerly an emirate, Bahrain was declared a kingdom in 2002.Bahrain is...
i police. The incident occurred at one of the biggest mosques in the island state, in front of 7000 worshippers, on the last Friday of Ramadan
Ramadan
Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, which lasts 29 or 30 days. It is the Islamic month of fasting, in which participating Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking and sex during daylight hours and is intended to teach Muslims about patience, spirituality, humility and...
in 2004. The would-be khatib, wearing full male dress with a false beard and moustache, sat on the minbar
Minbar
A minbar is a pulpit in the mosque where the imam stands to deliver sermons or in the Hussainia where the speaker sits and lectures the congregation...
just before speaking, at which point some worshippers realised that the new imam was a woman in disguise. They and the mosque's imam, Sheikh
Sheikh
Not to be confused with sikhSheikh — also spelled Sheik or Shaikh, or transliterated as Shaykh — is an honorific in the Arabic language that literally means "elder" and carries the meaning "leader and/or governor"...
Adnan Al-Qattan, handed the 40 year old woman over to the police.
Canada
Canadian MuslimsIslam in Canada
According to Canada's 2001 census, there were 579,740 Muslims in Canada, just under 2% of the population. In 2006, the Muslim population was estimated to be 0.8 million or about 2.6%. In 2010, the Pew Research Center estimates there were about 0.9 million Muslims in Canada. About 65% were Sunni,...
have been active in the woman-led prayer movement since 2004. The United Muslim Association (UMA) is committed to having women deliver the khutbah and lead the salah.
In that year, 20-year-old Maryam Mirza delivered the second half of the Eid al-Fitr khutbah at the Etobicoke mosque in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, run by the UMA.
Later the same year, Yasmin Shadeer led the night isha
Isha
* Hebrew word meaning "woman"* Isha'a, the Fard daily Salah prayers in Islam* A Sanskrit term for "God, deity", see Ishvara* A name meaning: deity; the ruling Goddess; the Lord, One who protects, Supreme.* Another name of Goddess Kali* An Indian given name...
prayer with her male and female congregants. - the first recorded occasion in contemporary times where a woman led a congregation in prayer in a mosque.
In April 2005, Raheel Raza
Raheel Raza
Raheel Raza is a Muslim Canadian journalist, author, public speaker, media consultant, anti-racism activist, and interfaith discussion leader. She lives in Toronto, Canada. She has been compared to Asra Nomani and Amina Wadud for her controversial views on Islam.She is the author of Their Jihad,...
led Toronto's first woman-led mixed-gender Friday service, delivering the khutbah and leading the prayers of the congregation. The event was organized by the Muslim Canadian Congress
Muslim Canadian Congress
The Muslim Canadian Congress was organized to provide a voice to Muslims who support a "progressive, liberal, pluralistic, democratic, and secular society where everyone has the freedom of religion." The organization claimed to have 300 dues-paying members prior to its 2006 split.-Origins:It was...
to celebrate Earth Day
Earth Day
Earth Day is a day that is intended to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's natural environment. The name and concept of Earth Day was allegedly pioneered by John McConnell in 1969 at a UNESCO Conference in San Francisco. The first Proclamation of Earth Day was by San Francisco, the...
, and was held in the backyard of the downtown Toronto home of activist Tarek Fatah
Tarek Fatah
Tarek Fatah Urdu: طارق فتح is a Canadian political activist, writer, and broadcaster. He is the author of Chasing a Mirage: The Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State published by John Wiley & Sons. In the book Fatah challenges the notion that the establishment of an Islamic state is a necessary...
. The former Mufti of Marseille, Soheib Bencheikh
Soheib Bencheikh
Soheib Bencheikh is an Islamic religious leader and author and would-be French politician.Bencheikh graduated in Islamic theology at Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt, and at the Free University of Brussels, Belgium. He holds a doctorate in Religious Sciences from the Ecole Pratique des Hautes...
, requested that either Raza or Pamela Taylor lead him in prayer during a visit to Canada in February 2006. The prayers were sponsored by the Muslim Canadian Congress and held in a private venue with a mixed gender congregation. In 2008, Taylor, a Muslim convert since 1986, gave the Friday khutbah and led the mixed-gender prayers at the UMA Toronto mosque at the invitation of the Muslim Canadian Congress
Muslim Canadian Congress
The Muslim Canadian Congress was organized to provide a voice to Muslims who support a "progressive, liberal, pluralistic, democratic, and secular society where everyone has the freedom of religion." The organization claimed to have 300 dues-paying members prior to its 2006 split.-Origins:It was...
on Canada Day
Canada Day
Canada Day , formerly Dominion Day , is the national day of Canada, a federal statutory holiday celebrating the anniversary of the July 1, 1867, enactment of the British North America Act , which united three British colonies into a single country, called Canada, within the British Empire...
. In addition to leading the prayers, Taylor also gave a sermon on the importance of equality among people regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, and/or disability.
From 2008, the Noor Cultural Centre
Noor Cultural Centre
The Noor Cultural Centre is an Islamic cultural centre located in the Don Mills neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on the east side of the Don Valley Parkway just north of Eglinton Avenue.-Building:...
in Toronto has included women on their Board of Khatibs, and women and men alternate giving the call to prayer each week . Women regularly give full length sermons prior to the second adhan
Adhan
The adhān is the Islamic call to prayer, recited by the muezzin at prescribed times of the day. The root of the word is meaning "to permit"; another derivative of this word is , meaning "ear"....
, with a male khatib delivering the Arabic portion in brief after the second call. In 2009, academic Laury Silvers and activist lawyer El-Farouk Khaki
El-Farouk Khaki
El-Farouk Khaki is a Canadian refugee and immigration lawyer, and human rights activist on issues including gender equality, sexual orientation, and progressive Islam. He was the New Democratic Party's candidate for the House of Commons in the riding of Toronto Centre in a March 17, 2008 by-election...
founded the El-Tawhid Juma Circle in downtown Toronto. The circle is gender-equal, homosexual-friendly, and religiously non-discriminatory. All Muslims are welcome to lead the prayer and give the sermon. It helps set up similar circles when asked; the first sister circle was founded in Washington D.C., in early 2011 (see USA section below).
Muslims for Progressive Values Canada, an affiliate of Muslims for Progressive Values USA, founded in 2010 by Shahla Khan Salter (chair) leads mixed congregational prayers in Ottawa, Canada. Prayers for MPV Canada have been led by women, including Farhat Rehman and by Zeinab A.
The El Tawhid Unity Mosque in Toronto founded by Dr. Laury Silvers regularly conducts Friday prayers led by women in a mixed congregation. The person delivering the khutbah may be a woman or a man.
China
A unique feature of Islam in ChinaIslam in China
Throughout the history of Islam in China, Chinese Muslims have influenced the course of Chinese history. Chinese Muslims have been in China for the last 1,400 years of continuous interaction with Chinese society...
is the presence of female-only mosques. Among the Hui people
Hui people
The Hui people are an ethnic group in China, defined as Chinese speaking people descended from foreign Muslims. They are typically distinguished by their practice of Islam, however some also practice other religions, and many are direct descendants of Silk Road travelers.In modern People's...
, but not other Muslim ethnic minorities such as the Uyghurs
Uyghur people
The Uyghur are a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia. Today, Uyghurs live primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China...
, Quranic schools for girls evolved into woman-only mosques and women acted as imams as early as 1820. These imams are called Nu Ahong, and they guide female Muslims in worship and prayer.
Morocco
Kathleen O'Connor noted in 2009 that a madrasa in MoroccoMorocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
had started training women as imams.
South Africa
South African MuslimsIslam in South Africa
Islam in South Africa pre-dates the colonial period, and consisted of isolated contact with Arab and East Africa traders. Many South African Muslims are described as Coloureds, notably in the Western Cape, including those whose ancestors came as slaves from the Indonesian archipelago...
heard their first female-led Jum'ah khutbah in 1994 when African-American Islamic studies professor Amina Wadud
Amina Wadud
Amina Wadud is an American scholar of Islam with a progressive focus on Qur'an exegesis . As an Islamic feminist, she has addressed mixed-sex congregations, giving a sermon in South Africa in 1994, and leading Friday prayers in the United States in 2005...
spoke at the Claremont Main Road Mosque in Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
, an experience she discusses in Inside the Gender Jihad. Since then, both that mosque and Masjidul Islam in Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
often have women speakers for jum'ah. Amongst them are Ai'sha Jennifer Roberts, Farhana Ismail, Moefidah Jaffer and Zakiya Seguro.
From 1995 to 1997, a congregation in Johannesburg met every Friday for the jum'ah prayer, and every night in Ramadan for the tarāwīh prayer, in a building owned by the Muslim Youth Movement of South Africa (MYM). The khutbah was delivered by either a male or female khatib and the imams who led the prayer also included men and women. Farid Esack
Farid Esack
Farid Esack is a South African Muslim scholar, writer, and political activist known for his opposition to apartheid, his appointment by Nelson Mandela as a gender equity commissioner, and his work for inter-religious dialogue.-Early life:...
refers to this in his book Qur'an, Liberation and Pluralism. One of the prime movers behind this congregation was Muslim women's rights activist Shamima Shaikh
Shamima Shaikh
Shamima Shaikh was South Africa's best known Muslim women's rights activist, notable Islamic feminist and journalist.-Biography:...
. In January 1998, as per her wishes, one of her four funeral prayers was led by a woman friend, Farhana Ismail.
In 2003, a new venue for Eid prayer was established in Durban
Durban
Durban is the largest city in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal and the third largest city in South Africa. It forms part of the eThekwini metropolitan municipality. Durban is famous for being the busiest port in South Africa. It is also seen as one of the major centres of tourism...
, designed to allow families to attend the Eid prayer together in a pleasant and comfortable atmosphere. It is run by Taking Islam to the People. At each Eid salaah there are two khutbahs delivered, one by a male and one by a female. Over the seven years from 2003–2010, fourteen women have offered khutbah, including Dr. Lubna Nadvi, Zaytun Suleyman, Fatima Seedat, Fatima Hendricks and Dr Mariam Seedat.
In 2005, Farhana Ismail first officiated at a nikah
Nikah
Marriage in Islam is an Islamic prenuptial contract between a man and woman to live as husband and wife. It is a formal, binding contract considered integral to a religiously valid Islamic marriage, and outlines the rights and responsibilities of the groom and bride involved in marriage proceedings...
(wedding) ceremony. She has trained other women to do so; since 2006, Fatima Seedat has officiated at three such ceremonies.
In May 2007, as a guest of the Muslim Youth Movement, the American visitor, Laury Silvers, gave the Friday sermon at the Claremont Road Mosque in Cape Town and an associated mosque in Johannesburg.
Spain
Spanish MuslimsIslam in Spain
Islam in Spain has had a fundamental presence in the culture and history of the nation. The religion was present in modern Spanish soil from 711 until 1492 under the rule of the Arabs and Moors of al-Andalus. For key historical dates, see Timeline of the Muslim presence in the Iberian peninsula...
have been some of the greatest supporters of the woman-led prayer movement. Spanish imam Abdennur Prado responded immediately to the controversial prayer by American Amina Wadud
Amina Wadud
Amina Wadud is an American scholar of Islam with a progressive focus on Qur'an exegesis . As an Islamic feminist, she has addressed mixed-sex congregations, giving a sermon in South Africa in 1994, and leading Friday prayers in the United States in 2005...
(see USA section) with a supportive legal opinion. He was one of the organisers of the October 2005 Islamic feminism
Islamic feminism
Islamic feminism is a form of feminism concerned with the role of women in Islam. It aims for the full equality of all Muslims, regardless of gender, in public and private life. Islamic feminists advocate women's rights, gender equality, and social justice grounded in an Islamic framework...
conference in Barcelona, the first attended by men and women from around the world, at which Wadud led a mixed gender congregational prayer. In 2010, another visiting academic, South African Dr. Sa'diyya Sheikh, gave the khutbah and led the Friday prayer for a mixed congregation.
Turkey
Turkish MuslimsIslam in Turkey
The region secacomprising modern Turkey has a long and rich Islamic tradition stretching back to the dawn of the Seljuk period and Ottoman Empire. The country has many historical mosques present throughout the cities and towns, including many in Istanbul...
are conscious of their influence in modernising Islam. The state-run mosques have trained hundreds of women as vaizes, a term translated by the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
as "senior imams" and by the Washington Times as "female preachers". The WT says, "As well as being preachers, women now have the right to lead groups on the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, and 15 Turkish provinces have women serving as deputy muftis — specialists on religious law who monitor the work of imams in mosques. Significantly, given that 70 percent of requests for advice come from women, the assistant muftis have the right to issue fatwas, or religious opinions." According to the Christian Science Monitor, in 2005 "Diyanet
Diyanet
Diyanet is a Turkish word for office or authority for Islamic, religious affairs.* Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı* Diyanet İşleri Türk İslam Birliği...
, a government body that oversees the country's mosques and trains religious leaders, added 150 women preachers across Turkey" and has moved on to "selecting a group of women who will serve as deputies to muftis, or expounders of religious law. From this post, they'll monitor the work being done by imams in local mosques, particularly as it relates to women.".
United Kingdom
British MuslimsIslam in the United Kingdom
Islam has been present in the United Kingdom since its formation in 1707, though it was not legally recognised until the Trinitarian Act in 1812. Today it is the second largest religion in the country with estimates suggesting that by 2010 the total Muslim population had reached 2.869 million.The...
had their first chance to hear a female-led mixed-gender salah in 2008, when the American scholar Amina Wadud
Amina Wadud
Amina Wadud is an American scholar of Islam with a progressive focus on Qur'an exegesis . As an Islamic feminist, she has addressed mixed-sex congregations, giving a sermon in South Africa in 1994, and leading Friday prayers in the United States in 2005...
performed the Friday prayer at Oxford's Wolfson College
Wolfson College
Wolfson College may refer to:*Wolfson College, Cambridge*Wolfson College, Oxford...
. In 2010 Raheel Raza
Raheel Raza
Raheel Raza is a Muslim Canadian journalist, author, public speaker, media consultant, anti-racism activist, and interfaith discussion leader. She lives in Toronto, Canada. She has been compared to Asra Nomani and Amina Wadud for her controversial views on Islam.She is the author of Their Jihad,...
became the first Muslim-born woman to lead a mixed-gender British congregation through Friday prayers.
United States
In 2005, African-American Islamic scholar Amina WadudAmina Wadud
Amina Wadud is an American scholar of Islam with a progressive focus on Qur'an exegesis . As an Islamic feminist, she has addressed mixed-sex congregations, giving a sermon in South Africa in 1994, and leading Friday prayers in the United States in 2005...
led a congregation in Friday prayer and gave a sermon in New York City. Another woman sounded the call to prayer, while not wearing a headscarf, and no curtain divided the men and women. This was not the first woman-led mixed-gender congregational prayer (see the above noted events), but it was the first to gain national and international attention. See Amina Wadud#Friday prayer for fuller information.
The Progressive Muslim Union
Progressive Muslim Union
The Progressive Muslim Union of North America was a liberal Islamic organization. The group officially launched on November 15, 2004 in Manhattan but was disbanded in December 2006...
followed the Wadud prayer with a woman-led prayer initiative. The initiative sought to bring together the varied progressive opinions on the prayer as well as engage more conservative Muslims by encouraging further debate, highlighting legal opinions in support of the prayer (as well as giving space to the overwhelming negative opinions), facilitating Muslims who would like to organize future prayers, and documenting those events as they heard of them. Progressives and others sympathetic to bringing about a transformation of gender privilege in Islam continue to work for the establishment of woman-led prayer.
Many perceived the Wadud prayer to be an inevitable reaction to the deplorable situation of women in mosques in North America. The attention garnered by the event forced more conservative Muslim organizations to publicly acknowledge the situation and call for changes. ISNA
ISNA
ISNA can refer to:Abbreviations/acronyms* Iranian Students' News Agency* Intersex Society of North America* Islamic Society of North America* Indigenous Sovereign Nation Assembly, an assembly of indigenous nations in New Zealand and vicinityPlaces...
responded with guidelines for women-friendly mosques. Scholars such as Imam Zaid Shakir and Dr. Louay M. Safi
Louay M. Safi
Louay M. Safi is a Syrian-American, a scholar of Islam and the Middle East, and an advocate of Arab and Muslim American rights. He published on such issues as social and political development, modernization, democracy, human rights, and Islam and Modernity...
have been calling attention to and working to change mosque conditions for years. Progressives and others would argue, though, that mosque conditions are merely a symptom of a widespread sense of male entitlement following centuries of male privilege in the intellectual and political power centers of Islam.
Women continue to lead prayers in the United States in their communities with or without media coverage: Nakia Jackson led Eid prayers in 2006 and 2007, with Laury Silvers giving the khutba.
Since early 2006, Muslims for Progressive Values has had a continuous gender-equal prayer space in West Hollywood, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. Both men and women are allowed to lead prayers and deliver a khutba. Although congregants may choose to position themselves wherever they like, there is no gender segregation policy during prayer. The first dedicated gender-equal prayer space in the United States was founded by Fatima Thompson and Imam Daayiee Abdullah in Washington D.C., as a sister mosque to the El-Tawhid Juma Circle founded two years previously in Toronto (see above).
See also
- Effect of feminism on religion
- ImamImamAn imam is an Islamic leadership position, often the worship leader of a mosque and the Muslim community. Similar to spiritual leaders, the imam is the one who leads Islamic worship services. More often, the community turns to the mosque imam if they have a religious question...
- Liberal movements within IslamLiberal movements within IslamProgressive Muslims have produced a considerable body of liberal thought within Islam or "progressive Islam" ; but some consider progressive Islam and liberal Islam as two distinct movements)...
- Shia Imam
- Sex segregation in IslamSex segregation in IslamIslam discourages free mixing between men and women when they are alone but not all interaction between men and women. Interaction between men and women is prescribed to be maintained at a healthy and modest level, to the extent where they can socialize in order to know each other as ordained by...
- Tynetta MuhammadTynetta MuhammadTynetta Muhammad is a longtime member and columnist for the Nation of Islam . Known as Tynetta Muhammad, she writes the weekly column, Unveiling the Number 19 in the NOIs official newspaper The Final Call. She was a speaker at the Million Man March in October 1995 in Washington, DC. A former NOI...
- Women in IslamWomen in IslamThe study of women in Islam investigates the role of women within the religion of Islam. The complex relationship between women and Islam is defined by Islamic texts, the history and culture of the Muslim world...
External links
- International Museum of Women Feature on Women Spiritual Guides in Morocco
- ruling by Zarabozo (includes Arabic quotes)
- Religious conservatism: Feminist theology as a means of combating injustice toward women in Muslim communities/cculture by Riffat Hasan
- An Examination of the Issue of Female Prayer Leadership by Imam Zaid ShakirZaid ShakirZaid Salim Shakir is a prominent American Islamic scholar and writer who is a co-founder, , and faculty member, of Zaytuna College in Berkeley, California, United States, where he teaches courses on Arabic, Law, History, and Islamic Spirituality...
- Dr. Khaled Abou el-Fadl's fatwa on women leading prayer
- In Recognition of Women
- Woman leads Muslim prayer service in New York
- Women in Society: Political Participation
- "I Am One of the People’: A Survey and Analysis of Legal Arguments on Woman-Led Prayer in Islam", Journal of Law and Religion 26.1 2010-2011 by Ahmed Elewa and Laury Silvers
- http://www.mpvottawa.com