Feminists Reread the Quran

...Now I want to see and bring about the end of the necessity for jihad," Wadud writes in the book...

...Development Program report...

...She has a doctorate in political science from Kent State University in Ohio...

...In reality and in today's society, when a woman does have sufficient knowledge to serve as a witness, her testimony is equivalent to a man's testimony, Mattson says...

...This Islamic council will have twenty-four female members and will adjudicate cases, issue fatwas, and offer a collective legal voice on issues affecting women...

...By rendering the word "daraba" as "go away," instead of the commonly accepted "to beat," Bakhtiar has taken a revolutionary step...

...Interpretations can change the lives of women," she says...

...She also set off a firestorm of controversy in 2005 by leading a public prayer, considered an Islamic taboo...

...They are forcing people to think differently about Islam and its place in an individual's life, in communities, societies, and countries, says Ali...

...It also marked a definitive trend toward examining the role of gender and women in Islam...

...Opposition from conservative Muslim voices and death threats have not slowed down Ingrid Mattson, either...

...A daughter of a Methodist minister, Wadud, then Mary Teasley, was brought up as a Christian...

...enough of a security risk to Wadud and her students to move her off campus for a semester...

...Administrators at Virginia Commonwealth University thought there was Anjuman Ali is an editorial writer and the online editor for the Wisconsin State Journal, based in Madison...

...Mattson says Quranic interpretations that challenge gender inequality take the social and historical context of the Quran, the Hadiths, and Islamic laws more seriously than classical interpretations...

...We are witnessing "the beginnings of a revolution, of a profound rethinking of Islamic heritage," says Leila Ahmed, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School...

...Tunisia and Morocco are reinterpreting Islamic law to enhance women's rights relating to inheritance, divorce, custody, and other issues...

...Laleh Bakhtiar, the first American woman to translate the Quran from Arabic into English, agrees...

...She read books on Islam, discussed religion with scholars and others, wore long clothes, and covered her hair...

...One of the most troubling passages in the Quran is usually interpreted as saying that a man can beat his wife...

...Mattson and Wadud are just two of the female Islamic scholars who are trying to free the Quran from those who use it to oppress women...

...And Jordan has made progress in passing labor laws affecting migrant women workers, says a 2006 U.N...

...And they are superseded by universal and general Quranic principles...

...But it also rattled many conservative Muslims, who argued that the Quran and the Hadiths (traditions based on what Muhammad said, did, or approved of) do not welcome women leaders...

...They were even more incensed to learn that Mattson supports and encourages both women and men to be Muslim chaplains and equal partners and participants in Muslim communities and families...

...She has lived, traveled, taught, and lectured all over the world, including for several years in Egypt and Libya...

...But that does not justify the conclusion that a woman's witness is only half as valuable as a man's...

...Rulings are for particular time periods...

...The spaces for women to demonstrate both their self-identification as a female and their full humanity are not reserved for only those women whom elite male scholars and laypersons have already manipulated in mind and body, but belong to all women who have endeavored to sustain their roles as women and Muslims despite silence, separation, violence, and invisibility...

...An African American, she began her conversion in the early 1970s while an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania, where she met many Muslims...

...The American Society for Muslim Advancement is creating a Shura...

...The patriarchal societal structure, the physical hardships of labor, the collective identity as a tribe circumscribed individual freedoms...

...The Quran recognizes women's autonomy, individuality, and spiritual equality...

...For instance, the Quran does not say two women are needed to witness a contract instead of one man every time...

...She has a level, measured voice, dresses in long clothes, and covers her hair...

...It was my only means to survive...

...Wadud says she was attracted to the Quran for its message of love and justice...

...When she converted, she chose the last name Wadud, which means "loving" in Arabic...

...But women in seventh century Arabia had limited options...

...Mattson was born and raised Roman Catholic by her family in Canada...

...Wadud says the Quran does not sanction gender oppression, inequality, and injustice...

...Her book Inside the Gender Jihad: Women's Reform in Islam was published last year and has quickly become a must-read for Islam scholars...

...It says that women are individual, ethical beings who are responsible for their own mistakes and who benefit from their positive actions," Mattson says...

...In the months after the prayer, Muslim fundamentalists railed against her...

...If I had known what impact my work would have, I would have been more overwhelmed," says Wadud, a professor of Islamic studies at Virginia Commonwealth University...

...She didn't expect that study to make her one of the most prominent Islamic theologians in the world— and a highly controversial figure...

...People will use the Quran to justify the oppression of women, to get the authority to discriminate against others," she says...

...She may be the most public face of Islam in America today, since she heads the Islamic Society of North America...

...I have lived inside the gender jihad long enough to know that I had to take it up...

...Wadud received her master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Michigan...

...Bakhtiar says the passage means that the man should walk away from his wife rather than beat her...

...Her book Quran and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman's Perspective drew worldwide interest, acclaim, and criticism when it was published in Malaysia in 1992...

...She teaches Islamic law and ethics, and her book, The Story of the Quran: Its History and Place in Muslim Life, will be published this fall...

...It does give a specific case of two women and one man witnessing a contract, she says...

...She also began to work for the Islamic Society of North America, where she served as vice president for five years before being elected unopposed last year...

...Mattson is one of the most visible figures and voices supporting gender equality in Islam and the Muslim world...

...She is fluent in classical, modern, and colloquial Arabic...

...But such atrocities are not in the Quran...

...It is too soon to gauge the impact of gendered interpretations on social structures and Islamic laws, scholars say, but they are already making a difference in people's lives...

...Mattson's election last year as president of the largest umbrella organization for Muslim groups in the United States and Canada was greeted with joy by many moderate and progressive Muslims, especially women...

...Mattson is married to an Egyptian Muslim engineer and has two children...

...She is among the first female scholars in the modern world to question Quranic interpretations and Islamic laws that deem women unequal to men...

...Mattson is the director of Islamic Chaplaincy and a professor at the Macdonald Center for Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut...

...Wadud calls herself a "pro-faith, pro-feminism" academic...

...Mattson converted to Islam as a college senior in 1987 and then studied early Islamic history for her doctorate from the University of Chicago...

...Asma Barlas at Ithaca College in New York, Carolyn Moxley Rouse at Princeton University, and Kecia Ali at Boston University are three other influential scholars on this path...

...By understanding this context, "we are able to free women from these limitations," says Mattson...

...She gave up Catholicism at age sixteen after many attempts to understand her faith and its relevance to her life...