Guidance as ‘Women’s Work’: A New Generation of Female Islamic Authorities in Britain

Abstract

This article is about a new publicly visible generation of female Islamic authorities in the UK and the ways in which they make sense of what it means to be a female authority within largely male-dominated structures of knowledge production. These authorities are setting up their own institutes and emphasising the importance of drawing from within the Islamic tradition while contextualising it in the British context. On the one hand, they stress their unique ability as women to provide personal and collective guidance, based on relationships of empathy and care, that addresses the needs of Muslim women in Britain. On the other hand, they recognise the limitations of presenting guidance as ‘women’s work’, and they seek to pluralise their roles or to present gender as irrelevant in their work. By navigating between accepting, pluralising and transcending female modes of authority, they carve out legitimate spaces for themselves as female leaders while developing and imagining new understandings of Islamic knowledge and plural models of pious leadership. I argue that these multiple ways of making sense of their experiences move us away from theorising female religious leadership solely through binary tropes, such as liberal/orthodox Islam, resistance/compliance, enabling/constraining, which continue to shape research in the field.

Accusations of Islamophobia and Radicalism Against Muslim Women in Hijab in Indonesia: A Bibliometric Analysis

“…This shows that these keywords are closely related to research topics and titles that researchers will raise in the field of Islamophobia, with the theme Accusations of Islamophobia and Radicalism Against Muslim Women in Hijab: Bibliometric Analysis. 13 Explaining which is the largest both in terms of SCP and MSCP, from the results of research data explains the 5 most published countries, the first most publications are the USA with the number of SCP 15 documents and MCP 5 documents, then the UK with the number of SCP 12 documents and 1 MCP, followed by Canada which has the SCP value alone with 10 documents, then the State of Indonesia with the number of SCP 9 documents and MCP 1 document, and the last State Australia with the number of SCP 4 documents and MCP 1 document. From this much data, it can be explained that the publication is dominated by the European continent.…”

“…Figure 2.1 13. Explaining which is the largest both in terms of SCP and MSCP, from the results of research data explains the 5 most published countries, the first most publications are the USA with the number of SCP 15 documents and MCP 5 documents, then the UK with the number of SCP 12 documents and 1 MCP, followed by Canada which has the SCP value alone with 10 documents, then the State of Indonesia with the number of SCP 9 documents and MCP 1 document, and the last State Australia with the number of SCP 4 documents and MCP 1 document.…”

Assessing Muslim Higher Education and Training Institutions (METIs) and Islamic Studies Provision in Universities in Britain: An Analysis of Training Provision for Muslim Religious Leadership after 9/11

“…128-30). Most of the female scholars mentioned in Liberatore's (2019) work for example had studied at Muslim colleges.…”

“…121-22); however, more and more Muslim women are challenging these norms by adopting various roles of religious leadership within their communities. There have been several recent examples of female Imams leading congregations (Lewis and Hamid 2018; Petersen 2019); a rising number of Muslim women taking up chaplaincies, where they even have certain advantages over their male counterparts (Gilliat-Ray et al 2013); and an emerging cadre of female METI graduates realising that they provide unique services of 'personal and collective guidance' to their communities that tend to override the need for conspicuous career paths but nevertheless propel these women forward as authorities within a male-dominated space (Liberatore 2019). Nevertheless, further research is required on the experiences of female alumni of METIs to uncover the extent to which gendered dynamics influence their subsequent career trajectories.…”

Engaging with the Qur’an

“…For example, the claim to religious knowledge and roles lead some women to affirm patriarchal interpretations and gender roles, while others as a result of this acquired religious knowledge and agency undertake a double critique of religious and community patriarchy and the racism and marginalization they encounter in the larger society. A number of studies have also analysed the new forms of religious leadership assumed by women, some of which are still based on gendered notions of women and men's roles, whilst others combine the women's professional and reli gious roles (Kloos 2016;Liberatore 2019).…”