Authoritative female UK Muslims
Giulia Liberatore
Research Summary
There is a new generation of female Islamic authorities in the UK. They are setting up their own institutes and emphasising the importance of drawing from within the Islamic tradition in the British context. They stress their unique ability as women to provide personal and collective guidance that addresses the needs of Muslim women in Britain. But they recognise the limitations of presenting guidance as ‘women’s work’; they sometimes present gender as irrelevant in their work. They are developing and imagining new understandings of Islamic knowledge and leadership. It is a move away from binaries such as liberal/orthodox Islam, or resistance to/compliance with established religion.
Researcher
Giulia Liberatore
Research Institution
University of Edinburgh
What is this about?
- Islam in Britain.
- Authority and leadership in contemporary Islam.
- Islamic knowledge.
- Gender and piety in Islam.
- Experiences of Islam.
What was done?
The research is part of a larger ethnographic research project on female Islamic authority and guidance in the UK, conducted between April 2015 and October 2019. It involved mapping a broad range of female authorities across the country, analysing their online presence, interviewing over twenty-five female Islamic authorities (scholars, teachers, preachers, as well as authorities providing legal advice or counselling), visiting spaces of learning, attending classes and retreats, speaking to audience members and discussing the topic with male Islamic authorities and other experts in the area.
Main findings and outputs
- Islam is changing.
- There is a new generational of influential, younger, female Islamic authorities in the UK. They are not a cohesive group, they experience different opportunities and situations.
- They have some things in common: teaching in English, teaching in informal spaces, addressing a broad British Muslim audience and sometimes using social media to teach.
- They are known for high levels of scholarship and personal piety.
- They are life guides, addressing issues such as marriage and relationships, though referring to Islamic sources in a ‘traditional’ way. Many young UK Muslims are in need of spiritual guidance, to practice Islam in a ‘western’ context. Women are seen as natural guides, within Islamic tradition.
- These women do not see themselves as ‘liberal’ in contrast to ‘conservative’ teachers. They can be seen as part of an emerging European Islam.
Relevance to RE
This research has high relevance to RE. Teachers can use it to develop their own subject knowledge in line with current research. The research is ground-breaking, illustrates some new and significant themes and provides evidence on the roles of women in Islam that can help teachers to challenge stereotypes. Another particularly valuable point is how distinctions such as ‘liberal’ and conservative’ might not always adequately describe different experiences of Islam in the contemporary world.
Generalisability and potential limitations
This research deliberately illustrates a trend, rather than giving findings that can be generalised across the experiences of Muslims. It gives good detail and analysis on a significant set of changes regarding the transmission of Islam in the UK, however, and readers are encouraged to study the original article, freely available from the link given below.
Find out more
The original article is Giulia Liberatore, Guidance as ‘Women’s Work’: A New Generation of Female Islamic Authorities in Britain, Religions 2019: 10 (11), 601.
The article is available open-access at https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10110601