Amina Wadud
In 1952, Mary Teasely was born in Maryland, USA the daughter of a Methodist minister. She attended the University of Pennsylvania, where she converted to Islam in 1972 and officially changed her name to Amina Wadud in 1974. Wadud graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelors of Science, and went on to get her Master’s degree in Near Eastern Studies and PhD in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the University of Michigan in 1988. While in graduate school, she studied in Cairo, Egypt the topics of advanced Arabic, Qur’anic studies and exegesis, and philosophy. After graduating, Wadud was an assistant professor at the International Islamic University Malaysia teaching Qur’anic studies, and then from 1992-2008 worked at Virginia Commonwealth University as a professor of religion and philosophy. While teaching in Malaysia, Wadud cofounded an NGO (non-governmental organization) called Sisters in Islam, which seeks “to promote the principles of gender equality, justice, freedom, and dignity in Islam and empower women to be advocates for change.” In 1994, she broke precedent by delivering the Friday khutbah in South Africa, and then in 2005 lead Friday salat for a congregation in the United States (particularly bold since it is breaking Islamic law for a woman to lead the salat when the congregation includes men). Wadud writes and lectures on the interpretation of the Qur’an to be promoting equality, and argues that the imposition of patriarchal systems places an incorrect hierarchy that should not exist under God.
Want to know more? Check out:
A summary of Wadud’s paper Islam Beyond Patriarchy Through Gender Inclusive Qur’anic Analysis: http://www.musawah.org/sites/default/files/Wanted-AW-Summary.pdf
The Noble Struggle of Amina Wadud (documentary, 2007)
Qur’an and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman’s Perspective by Amina Wadud, 1999
Inside the Gender Jihad: Women’s Reform in Islam by Amina Wadud, 2006