Amina Wadud Leads Mixed Gender Friday Prayer in Barcelona
Click here to read the article.
I remember when Amina Wadud first led a mixed-gender public prayer. Man, did she piss a lot of people off! Every Islamic mailing list I belonged to sent emails about how wrong she was to do this. Fortunately, the email I received the most often regarding this subject is this one. One of the less offensive critiques out there, but still... I don't buy it. The author (a woman) doesn't give one line from the Qur'an or Hadith (sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)) supporting her assertion that women should not lead prayer.
Realistically, women are generally marginalized in mosques. It's a total boy's club... Most of the time we can't even pray in the sam ROOM as the men... which is total BS because women and men prayed together in the same room in the time of Muhammad (PBUH).
Right or wrong, Dr. Wadud's actions are clearly that of taking a stand against the male-dominated establishment that treats women--fellow Muslims--like dirt. I find her to be very brave, and I think history will show her to be someone who chose to take all the crap so future generations of Muslim women (Insha Allah) don't have to. Good for her.
I remember when Amina Wadud first led a mixed-gender public prayer. Man, did she piss a lot of people off! Every Islamic mailing list I belonged to sent emails about how wrong she was to do this. Fortunately, the email I received the most often regarding this subject is this one. One of the less offensive critiques out there, but still... I don't buy it. The author (a woman) doesn't give one line from the Qur'an or Hadith (sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)) supporting her assertion that women should not lead prayer.
Realistically, women are generally marginalized in mosques. It's a total boy's club... Most of the time we can't even pray in the sam ROOM as the men... which is total BS because women and men prayed together in the same room in the time of Muhammad (PBUH).
Right or wrong, Dr. Wadud's actions are clearly that of taking a stand against the male-dominated establishment that treats women--fellow Muslims--like dirt. I find her to be very brave, and I think history will show her to be someone who chose to take all the crap so future generations of Muslim women (Insha Allah) don't have to. Good for her.
posted by purvis at 1:39 AM
1 Comments:
Hi Michael,
Thanks for reading my blog! Male chauvenism is an ongoing problem in the Muslim world, but a distinction should be made between the behavior of Muslims and the actual teachings of Islam. I think this article on beliefnet sums it up rather nicely: http://www.beliefnet.com/story/71/story_7155_1.html
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