Muslim Women's Religious Leadership: The Case of Australian Mosques

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
File version

Version of Record (VoR)

Author(s)
Ghafournia, Nafiseh
Griffith University Author(s)
Primary Supervisor
Other Supervisors
Editor(s)
Date
2022
Size
File type(s)
Location
Abstract

In the history of all religions, there has been a male monopoly over religious leadership. In most Muslim societies in particular, men have enjoyed indisputable authority over religious leadership roles in the spaces of worship and communal gatherings. However, in recent decades, some Muslim women have contested this ownership and have taken up space in mosques and other religious spaces to teach and lead prayer for other women or for both genders. Yet, women’s religious leadership roles in contemporary mosques in both Muslim and Western countries are contested. Research on this topic in the Australian context is limited to very few studies. In this article, I will review the historic debate around female religious authority—particularly women’s leadership roles in the mosque. The relationship between Islam, gender and religious authority, as well as the initiation of female Imams, will also be explored. Online written interviews were conducted with twenty Muslim women drawn from three Australian Muslim online Facebook groups to determine how these women perceive female religious authority and, in particular, how they view female Imams leading prayer in the mosque. Building on the participants’ narratives, the paper investigates the didactic potential and challenges that Australian Muslim women may have with regard to greater inclusion in religious authority and decision-making positions.

Journal Title

Religions

Conference Title
Book Title
Edition
Volume

13

Issue

6

Thesis Type
Degree Program
School
Publisher link
Patent number
Funder(s)
Grant identifier(s)
Rights Statement
Rights Statement

© 2022 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Item Access Status
Note
Access the data
Related item(s)
Subject

Religious studies

Women's studies (incl. girls' studies)

Arts & Humanities

Religion

Muslim women

religious leadership

mosque

Persistent link to this record
Citation

Ghafournia, N, Muslim Women's Religious Leadership: The Case of Australian Mosques, Religions, 2022, 13 (6), pp. 534

Collections