ABSTRACT
Female Islamic education and mission activities have flourished in various countries. Previous studies have discussed how this movement can be understood and evaluated; although feminist research approaches various issues, these arguments can be divided into the following two types: (a) critical analysis of the views or images of women constructed in the dominant discourse or nation-building projects of religious authorities or governments and (b) evaluation of women-centred religious reforms or social movements that contribute to reconstructing conventionally male-dominated religious knowledge and activities. Similar to the latter, this chapter highlights informal and grassroots female Islamic education activities in several villages in Tangail district in Bangladesh. The author seeks to explore their effects on women’s religious and social lives focusing on talim, a weekly Islamic lecture for local neighbourhood women given in houses by female preachers. Although talim had slight effects on female social status and could include all women as participants, this case study represents the potential and possibility of talim for changing or appropriating male-dominated Islamic discourse and its space.
