Muslim Women as Creators of Islamic Knowledge

imagetn(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — Historically, women have played an important role in cultivating and maintaining Islamic knowledge. Their involvement in religious scholarship — and in the Islamic disciplines in general — continued for hundreds of years, although their contributions have declined in the last few centuries for a variety of reasons. As more Muslim women begin to produce scholarship, however, particularly in the field of Islamic law, changes are unfolding in the face of Islamic religious authority.

That change, as well as the promise of greater adoption of the egalitarian principles of Islam, is the central theme of the third annual Graduate Student Islamic Studies Conference at UC Santa Barbara. “Reconstituting Female Authority: Women’s Participation in the Transmission and Production of Islamic Knowledge” will take place March 8-10 in the campus’s Loma Pelona Center. The conference is free and open to the public.

To view the complete story, open the attached news release, or go to
http://www.ia.ucsb.edu/pa/display.aspx?pkey=2951

Conference Site