ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on discussing the concept of female religious authority and the broader struggle for gender justice in the Islamic tradition including the idea of Islamic feminism. It outlines the nature of the various forms of female religious agency that have emerged strongly over the last four decades and provides successful examples of such agency in action in both Muslim majority and minority contexts at the level of institutions, organisations and individuals. The chapter pays close attention to the idea of how the assertion of female religious agency as a form of gender jihad at both discursive and activist levels is giving rise to discussions on the viability of the concept of Islamic feminism. It concludes with a discussion on the contributions of Muslim male scholars to gender justice and outlines the significance of this phenomenon in terms of the broader acceptance of the objectives and values underpinning Islamic feminism and gender justice in Muslim contexts.