CHINA MUSLIM WOMEN IMAM
Muslim girls and young men study side by side at the Ningxia Institute for the Study of Islam and the Quran, in Yinchuan, in China’s Ningxia province Thursday Oct. 19, 2006. Women's well-established status in religious life is evident across Ningxia, a desert region whose oases along the Yellow River were settled by Muslim traders from the Middle East. Religious schools for girls are common. Ningxia's top Islamic institute can't keep up with the demand from women applicants. China’s women imams serve as an inspiration to Muslim feminists and points to a more inclusive Islam at a time when much of the Islamic world is being driven by more austerely fundamentalist versions that largely relegate women to the home.
