Women’s piety movements in Islam

Abstract

The Muslim women’s piety movement extends in different forms across the Islamic world today. While female scholars and teachers are not new in the history of Islam, the scale of this movement constitutes a significant shift in the place of women within Islam, by bringing discussion of issues of Muslim jurisprudence and Qur’anic interpretation into the framework of women’s lives and questions. The growing presence of female Muslim scholars and teachers is an implicit challenge to the widely quoted hadith that women are lacking in piety and intelligence. This article describes the movement, discusses its impact in Muslim society, and asks what the implications might be for Christian missiology.