[ANON POST] Muslim Faith Leadership Roles for Women

[orange_fell]

I have a Somali-American woman in the Twin Cities, and I'd like to make her some sort of Muslim faith leader, but I don't know where to begin. I've read a lot of stargazer's blog, and I've Googled variations on "Muslim faith leaders women" and "female Muslim religious leaders." I got a lot of stuff for Muslim women by Muslim women, which was

Comments

[camille_miko]

I dunno if it could help you, but this religious University had been build by a woman in IX century : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_al-Karaouine She is really respected about it and lot of people see her like a saint woman.
Her sister, Mariyam, is very well know too, because she had build an other mosque in Fes, too : the Al-Andalus Mosque.

[mahasin]

The easiest one would probably be to make her a Hafiza, which is basically a scholar on the Qur'an. She could then be the leader of a woman's group, teach the Qur'an to students (adults and children however the adults would mostly be female). She also could lead a group of women in a communal salat (prayer).

She wouldn't be able to lead men in prayer so she wouldn't be able to be the leader of a mosque or a masjid. However she would be able to own one, or work as an administrator, which isn't really a faith position but they're usually quite respected.

Source: Growing up a black Muslim in America. My information is from the communities I was a part of in Michigan, I did live in Minneapolis for about a year but wasn't involved in the Muslim community there.

[serpent_849]

be careful with dismissing complaints of misogyny as bigoted junk.

[skjam]

One does have to apply discernment and consider the source of the information. A big clue is if it claims that all Muslims, everywhere, at all times are misogynistic in all ways.

That said, there is plenty of reliable testimony that many Muslim men, especially conservative or reactionary ones outside the US or Canada, would be very unhappy with a female religious leader who did not confine herself to women-only audiences.

edit reason: typo

[nineveh_uk]

UK example, but since you're thinking about a university professor, Mona Siddiqui http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Siddiqui is an example of someone with a significant public profile. She's a well-known scholar on Islamic issues, and she's done Radio 4's Thought for the Day - would a local TV/radio role be a possibility for you?

[dorsetgirl]

When my children did RS at GCSE they had to study Islam. Their school textbooks - apparently written to make Islam sound good (and some of it actually does) - talk about women not being allowed to do various things, including leading worship for men, being in the same worship place unless they are behind the men, etc.

That sounds like misogyny to me, and if it's not driven by the men, where is it coming from? It doesn't make sense to dismiss a textbook apparently written by Muslims as "bigoted junk".

[dorsetgirl]

Is that really relevant and helpful to the OP, though? They're asking for resources about what women can do.

Also, if the people who wrote that book were misogynist, the anti-woman parts could be seen as good parts also to them; it doesn't reflect the whole religion.

[dorsetgirl]

Yes, the OP is asking for ideas, but he/she also appeared to be dismissing the concept of Muslim men being misogynistic as “bigoted junk”.

As far as I know there is no rule stating that commenters are only allowed to respond to certain sentences in the original post. I felt I had some information that might have a bearing on the assertion, so I stated it.

it doesn't reflect the whole religionPerhaps not. But I am talking about an official textbook designed to describe and explain Islam to schoolchildren. At the very least, then, the facts contained in the textbook are the ones which people in authority within Islam have selected as (a) representative of the religion and (b) important in helping outsiders to understand Islam