Using female imams as a battleground is not the only feminist solution, writes a lady Imam Naima Khan
By Naima Khan
02 March, 2021
When Zara Mohammed was announced as the first
female secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, my phone lit up with
messages from my sisters, my mum and my colleagues. Uncles cheerily shared the
news on WhatsApp; cousins from around the globe sent congratulations.
The MCB, an umbrella body of over 500 Muslim
organisations, has been consistently male-led since its inception in 1997. So
seeing its members – which include charities, schools, mosques and community
groups – vote in a 29-year-old Scottish Muslim woman feels groundbreaking.
What is her vision? What are her priorities? What
will she do alongside other young leaders? We want mainstream journalists
interviewing Zara to ask these questions for us and the wider British public to
hear. I’d be keen to know Zara’s thoughts on how we can all increase rights and
resources for disabled Muslims, especially during the current pandemic, and how
MCB will include more Shia and Black-led organisations in its
membership.
What I care less about is something that Emma
Barnett, host of BBC Woman’s Hour, recently took Zara to task for, the number
of female imams in the UK. And I say that as a female imam myself.
In an interview about Zara’s momentous
appointment, Barnett homed in on this one, non-existent statistic: “How many
female imams are there in the UK?”
Zara rightly asked for some clarification – “are
you referring to chaplains, are you referring to women who lead the prayer?
What are you referring to?” – but was met with: “You tell me.”
Cue facepalming from Muslim women across
the country at the lack of religious literacy from an experienced journalist,
and at the shaming of a Muslim woman of colour by a white woman on a woman-led
radio show.
Barnett likened statistical representation of
female imams to the number of Muslims recorded in the UK census, and the
appointment of female imams to female priests and rabbis.
She hadn’t done enough basic research to know
that there is no registry of imams (of any gender) where this statistic could
be recorded and – thankfully! – no central body within Muslim
communities that has appointed itself responsible for work on this area of
representation.
There is no Islamic equivalent to the House of
Clergy, and that kind of work is not within the remit of the MCB.
As many people on Twitter pointed out, it speaks
volumes that Woman’s Hour tweeted this particularly hostile clip – extracted
from a longer interview – twice within 48 hours to continue shaming a Muslim
woman for tackling patriarchy in a way that prioritises the needs of her
community.
We felt the same despondence with Woman’s Hour at
the Inclusive Mosque Initiative (IMI), where we train and work with female
imams.
IMI was founded in 2012 as a feminist mosque with
the explicit intention to have women, genderqueer and non-binary imams
lead prayers. At the outset, our founders shared a theological view on women’s
right to lead mixed-gender prayers and gathered a community around it making
clear that those who didn’t agree were still welcome. Few religious
institutions in Britain can say that, Muslim or not.
Working with established mosques that have long,
beautiful and complex histories is long-term, non-linear work. What Zara and
other activists do is vitally important for the wider Muslim community and they
must work in a way that prioritises the needs of their communities, not the
white saviour priorities of white feminists like Emma Barnett.
Look, for example, at the community-led work of
Vibrant Scottish Mosques, which works with mosques to centre the religious,
educational, and social needs of women in their communities.
Take women like Huda Jawad, who runs Faith
and VAWG Coalition, Muna Abdi who does phenomenal work on anti-racism,
and Zenab Shah, who runs Disabled Muslims Network.
There’s writer Na’ima B Robert, who
organised the Black Muslim Renaissance in 2020, and the ongoing work by Batool
Al-Toma to support new Muslims. MCB can support this community-led work to
reach mosques through their Women in Mosques Development Programme and the Our
Mosque Our Future conferences, where communities can discuss vital topics.
All this activity combined gives imams like me
the resources we need to develop our roles so we can lead prayers, give useful
sermons, conduct marriage ceremonies and signpost people to the services they
need.
The number of female imams is only one indicator
for meaningful leadership changes in Muslim communities and it’s not the most
important one. Not when leadership is so varied and specific to the communities
being served.
Reducing our feminist progress to this one
question about the number of female imams marginalises the other brilliant
progress happening and imposes the priorities of white feminism on Muslim
women.
Let’s not turn solely to institutions to solve
problems that communities are already working very effectively on.
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Naima Khan is an imam at the Inclusive Mosque
Initiative.
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Original headline - Female Imams Aren’t The Only
Feminist Solution. I Know Because I Am One
...
Source: Huffingtonpost
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/using-female-imams-battleground-only/d/124433
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