"The acceptance of female leadership in mosques and madrasahs is a significant change from much historical practice, signalling the mainstream acceptance of some form of female Islamic authority in many places. This volume investigates the diverse range of female religious leadership present in contemporary Muslim communities in South, East and Central Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and North America, with chapters discussing its emergence, the limitations placed upon it, and its wider impact, as well as the physical and virtual spaces used by women to establish and consolidate their authority. It will be invaluable as a reference text, as it is the first to bring together analysis of female Islamic leadership in geographically and ideologically-diverse Muslim communities worldwide"--Back cover.

Introduction :Islamic authority and the study of female religious leaders / Hilary Kalmbach -- Sources of authority : female Ahong and Qingzhen Nusi (women's mosques) in China / Maria Jaschok -- Women mosque preachers and spiritual guides : publicizing and negotiating women's religious authority in Morocco / Margaret J. Rausch -- Reshaping religious authority in contemporary Turkey : state-sponsored female preachers / Mona Hassan -- From Qurʹānic circles to the internet : gender segregation and the rise of female preachers in Saudi Arabia / Amélie Le Renard -- The life of two mujtahidahs : female religious authority in twentieth-century Iran / Mirjam Künkler and Roja Fazaeli -- The Qubaysīyyāt : the growth of an international Muslim women's revivalist movement from Syria (1960-2008) / Sarah Islam -- Leading by example? Women madrasah teachers in rural North India / Patricia Jeffery, Roger Jeffery, and Craig Jeffrey -- Thinking for oneself? Forms and elements of religious authority in Dutch Muslim women's groups / Nathal M. Dessing -- Celebrating Miss Muslim Pageants and opposing rock concerts : contrasting the religious authority and leadership of two Muslim women in Kazan / N.R. Micinski -- Textual and ritual command : Muslim women as keepers and transmitters of interpretive domains in contemporary Bosnia and Herzegovina / Catharina Raudvere -- "She is always present" : female leadership and informal authority in a Swiss Muslim women's association / Petra Bleisch Bouzar -- Muslimahs' impact on and acquisition of Islamic religious authority in Flanders / Els Vanderwaeren -- Women, leadership, and participation in mosques and beyond : notes from Stuttgart, Germany / Petra Kuppinger -- Remembering Fāṭimah : new means of legitimizing female authority in contemporary Shīʻī discourse / Matthew Pierce -- Challenging from within : youth associations and female leadership in Swedish mosques / Pia Karlsson Minganti -- Gender strategy and authority in Islamic discourses : female preachers in contemporary Egypt / Hiroko Minesaki -- Translating text to context : Muslim women activists in Indonesia / Pieternella Van Doorn-Harder -- Making Islam relevant : female authority and representation of Islam in Germany / Riem Spielhaus -- Activism as embodied Tafsīr : negotiating women's authority, leadership, and space in North America / Juliane Hammer -- Women's rights to mosque space : access and participation in Cape Town mosques / Uta Christina Lehmann -- Female leadership in mosques : an evolving narrative / Masooda Bano.