Amina Wadud

Amina Wadud ( born September 25, 1952 in Bethesda, Maryland; born as Mary Teasley ) is a professor of Islamic Studies at the American Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond and author.

Biography

Amina Wadud was born under the name Mary Teasley in Bethesda, Maryland, and grew up with her ​​numerous siblings (including at least five brothers ) in the country on. Her father was a Methodist minister and is described by Wadud as their spiritual mentor. The mother played by his own admission quite an ambivalent role and should have at times inclined to depression and violence. As Wadud was just 10 years old, the family lost their possessions and went about for many months before finally a small apartment in Washington DC involved. Wadud was very gifted in school, but has little support from her family. Through the use of her teacher she could go to a majority of whites attended school in Boston, where she was one of two black students.

After graduating, she attended the University of Pennsylvania and went through a period of disorientation and the search for meaning. She traveled through the United States, dealt among other things with Buddhism, began to wear long clothing and African cloths. In 1972, she owned at the age of 20 years to Islam. In 1973 she graduated first from a BA in Education. After that, she spent some time in Libya and began also at the University of Pennsylvania Near Eastern Studies to study. In 1986, she began the research for her dissertation and in 1989 received his doctorate at the University of Michigan in the field of Islamic studies and Arabic. Amina Wadud was married twice and got in time to 1989 five children. In the early 1990s she divorced and lived a single parent.

After receiving her doctorate Wadud was offered a position at the Islamic University in Malaysia, where she taught until 1992. In Malaysia, she was involved in the establishment of the organization " Sisters in Islam ", which advocates, among others, for the rights of women. In 1992 also Waduds first book " Qur'an and Women " was released, whereupon she was offered a job in Richmond as an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. In June 2006, she published her second book, "Inside the Gender Jihad ".

Work

Amina Wadud argues on the basis of Islam for empowering women both within the family or the Islamic family law, as well as in the exercise of religious functions.

In her first book " Qur'an and Women " they devoted to the refutation of the opinion that women are viewed as inferior in the Koran. For this, it examines the themes of creation history, individual mentioned in the Quran women, portrayal of the afterlife as well as specific regulations or recommendations in the Koran. It relies, inter alia, to grammatical studies, various translation options Arabic terms and overall context.

In "Inside the Gender Jihad " she has continued with the interpretation of Quranic concepts and provides example notes that the Koran both men and women as morally responsive and responsible persons acting in concert ( khalifah ), where she Islam as "engaged surrender": defined (eg active devotion). To play alone at this her ( as the man ) role assigned, the wife must be allowed to decide for himself. Women as men were created equipped with full human dignity, therefore it was Muslim duty to grant them this honor. Other chapters of the book describe their ( positive and negative ) experiences within the Muslim community as well as within academia.

Wadud became known, as it is a traditional Friday prayers in front of a 100 -strong mixed community in New York launched in March 2005 as a woman, what many see as a historical novelty. The praying men and women came from Kentucky, Michigan, even Turkey and Egypt to witness the historic event. Due to a bomb threat and the negative attitude of New York mosques, the prayer was held in an Anglican church. Wadud itself rejects the focus of the media on such a sensation from events.

See also: Euro Islam

Works

Monographs

• Qur'an and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman's Perspective. Oxford, New York 1992, ISBN 0-19-512836-2.
• Inside the Gender Jihad. Women's Reform in Islam. Oxford 2006, ISBN 1-85168-463-8.

Articles, posts

• On Belonging as a Muslim. In: J. Gloria Wade- Gayles: My Soul is a Witness. African- American Women's Spirituality. Boston 1995, pp. 253-265.
• Towards a Qur'anic Hermeneutics of Social Justice: Race, Class and Gender. In: Journal of Law and Religion. Vol 12 (1996 ), No. 1, pp. 37-50.
• Roundtable Discussion: Feminist Theology and Religious Diversity. Feminist Theology: Religiously Diverse Neighbourhood or Christian Ghetto? In: Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion. Vol 16 (2000), No. 2, pp. 90-100.
• Qur'an, Gender and Interpretive Possibilities. In: Hawwa - Journal of Women of the Middle East and the Islamic World. Vol 2 (2004), No. 3, pp. 317-336.
• Muslim Women as Minorities. In: Journal - Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs. Vol 10 (1989 ), No. 1, pp. 161-170.
• Understanding the Implicit Qur'anic parameter to the Role of Women in the Modern Context. In: Islamic Quarterly. Vol 36 (1992 ), No. 2, pp. 125-130.