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Spark: Female Imams in China

Posted by John on June 25th, 2008 at 8:47 am · 3 Comments

The practice is not unique to China, but comparitively rare elsewhere.  The real Chinese innovation is the woman-only mosque.  I have mixed feelings about this: like separate spaces elsewhere in the Muslim world, segregation create opportunities for women to become professionals, business owners, academics–and imams–that wouldn’t otherwise exist in institutions or societies dominated by a strict, misogynist hierarchies.

h/t The Daily Dish

Tags: Feminism · Islam

3 responses so far ↓

  • 1 wren // Jun 27, 2008 at 2:56 am

    Huh. I didn’t even know there were Muslims in China. Mixed feelings here as well. It depends a bit on how the men view these mosques and the women in them.

    From what I’ve read of early Mormon history, the women had some empowering roles within their rights. That has tempered over time to the point where RS is defined an auxiliary group. It exists to support the priesthood.

    John, if you do some more Quaker posts in the future I’d be curious to hear about the gender dynamics. I assume they are progressive.

  • 2 xJane // Jun 30, 2008 at 6:32 am

    There are a lot of progressive Muslims, too, who see some of the early rights given to, for example, Fatima (the daughter of Mohammed) as their own right. I went to a (Buddhist) funeral officiated by a (Sufi) female imam. It was beautiful.

    I, too, would like to know what kind of esteem these women (and mosques) are held before weighing in. It partially seems like just more of the same sex segregation that happens anyway in mosques (which is bizarre to me, btw). But it may indeed be a way that these women empower themselves.

  • 3 John // Jun 30, 2008 at 10:38 am

    Wren, Muslims have a long and respected history in China. The world has many such unexpected historical treasures: for example, there is a line of Indian Catholics that claim spiritual roots back to the apostolic era (ironically, Buddhism all but disappeared from its land of origin for most of the same period).

    Quakers emphasized gender equality from its earliest days (one reason why Quaker Mary Dyer was hanged in Massachusetts in 1660). I’ll try to explore this history (and its present manifestations) in future posts.

    xJane, I’d love to hear more about this syncretistic funeral–sounds fascinating!

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