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

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.