Amina Wadud

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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

biography

Amina Wadud was born under the name Mary Teasley in Bethesda , Maryland, and grew up in the country with her numerous siblings (including at least five brothers). Her father was a Methodist pastor and is described by Wadud as her spiritual mentor. According to her own statements, the mother played a very ambivalent role and is said to have been prone to depression and violence at times. When Wadud was just 10 years old, the family lost their property and moved around for many months before moving into a small apartment in Washington DC . Wadud was very gifted at school, but her family gave little support. With the help of her teacher, she was able to switch to a mostly white 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 a search for meaning. She traveled through the USA, studied Buddhism, among other things, and began wearing long clothes and African scarves. She converted to Islam in 1972 and graduated in 1973 with a bachelor's degree in education. After a stay in Libya, she began to study Near Eastern Studies at the University of Pennsylvania . In 1986 she began doing research for her dissertation and received her PhD in Islamic Studies and Arabic from the University of Michigan in 1989 . Amina Wadud was married twice and had five children in the period up to 1989. In the early 1990s she divorced and lived as a single parent.

After receiving her doctorate, Wadud was offered a position at Islamic University in Malaysia, where she taught until 1992. In Malaysia she was involved in setting up the organization “Sisters in Islam”, which campaigns for women's rights, among other things. In 1992 Wadud's first book "Qur'an and Women" was published , whereupon she was offered a position as associate professor of philosophy and religious studies at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. In June 2006 her second book “Inside the Gender Jihad” was published .

plant

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

In her first book “Qur'an and Women” she contradicts the view that women are viewed as inferior in the Qur'an and analyzes the creation story, individual women mentioned in the Qur'an, descriptions of the afterlife and specific regulations and recommendations in the Qur'an. She supports u. a. on grammatical studies, various translation options for Arabic terms and overall context.

In “Inside the Gender Jihad” , she continues to deal with the interpretation of Quranic terms. B. states that the Koran addresses both men and women as morally acting and responsible persons ( khalifah ), whereby it defines Islam as "engaged surrender" (for example: active devotion). Just to be able to play this role assigned to her (like the man), the woman must be able to decide about herself. Women as well as men were created endowed with full human dignity, so it is a Muslim duty to grant them this dignity. Other chapters of the book describe their experiences (positive and negative) within the Muslim community as well as within the academic world.

Wadud became known when she led a traditional Friday prayer in March 2005 as a woman in front of a mixed community of around 100 in New York , which many see as a historical novelty. The praying men and women came from Kentucky , Michigan , even Turkey and Egypt to attend the historic event . Due to a bomb threat and the negative attitude of New York mosques, the prayer took place in an Anglican church. Wadud himself rejects the media's focus on such sensational 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: Gloria J. 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 Neighborhood 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 Parameters to the Role of Women in the Modern Context. In: Islamic Quarterly. Vol. 36 (1992), No. 2, pp. 125-130.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gary Robertson: Gender Equality for Muslims is Teacher's Cause. In: Richmond Times-Dispatch. October 5, 2005.
  2. ↑ In the following Amina Wadud: Qur'an and Women. Pp. 253–265 and Amina Wadud: Inside the Gender Jihad. Pp. 9, 62, 257.
  3. ↑ Andrea Elliott: Woman Leads Muslim Prayer Service in New York. In: The New York Times online. March 19, 2005.
  4. ↑ see Inside the Gender Jihad. especially the chapters Public Ritual Leadership and Gender Inclusiveness. and Stories from the Trenches.
personal data
SURNAME Wadud, Amina
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wadud-Muhsin, Amina
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American scholar of Islam
DATE OF BIRTH September 25, 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH Bethesda , Maryland