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12 images Created 5 May 2017

CHINA'S FEMALE IMAMS

At a tiny courtyard mosque tucked down a back alley in China's Muslim heartland, Wang Shouying leads other Muslim women in prayers and chants.
Every day, Wang dons a green velvet robe and white scarf and preaches to dozens of women at the Little White Mosque in western China's Ningxia region.
Wang is a keeper of a centuries-old tradition that gives women a leading role in a largely male-dominated faith. She is a female imam or ahong, pronounced ah-hung, from the Persian word akhund for "the learned."
"We need to train and educate our female comrades how to be good Muslims," Wang said between prayer sessions. "Women ahong are the best qualified to do this because they can relate to the female faithful in ways the male ahongs can’t."
China's women imams are not the equals of male prayer leaders. They do not lead salat — the five daily prayers considered among the most important Muslim obligations. Those prayers are instead piped via loudspeakers into the female mosques from the male ones nearby.
Still, the female imams guide others in worship and are the primary spiritual leaders for the women in their communities.
Although it's not unusual in Islam for women to lead other women in prayer, China's female imams are part of a trend of greater leadership roles for Muslim women in many nations, said Omid Safi, professor of Islamic studies at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
Chinese Muslims are carrying on a tradition that fell away in many Muslim societies after national governments centralized religious institutions, making men the leaders, said Ingrid Mattson, an Islamic scholar at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut.
Women's equal status in work and religion is evident across Ningxia, which was settled by Muslim traders from the Middle East a millennium ago. The communist push for gender equality helped broaden Muslim women's roles.
Women here work beside men in government offices, banks, shops and schools. Religious schools for girls are common. Often women maintain separate mosques, virtually identical to those led by men.
"The Chinese Communist Party liberated us from the kitchen, and it gave us the same duties and obligations as men," said Wu Yulian, a 45-year-old Muslim mother of two and head of a kindergarten. "I believe that men and women are equal by nature and that the practice of restricting women in some parts of the Middle East, like not allowing them outside, not allowing them to drive or be seen by men is really unfair and excessive," she said.
Down a dusty track on the outskirts of Wuzhong, 30 girls study at the Muslim Village Girl's School for Arabic Studies — a private boarding school set up by a local businessman. But drawing closer to worldwide Islam may come at a price in Ningxia, where a new generation of women may start to question whether their tradition of female imams is truly Islamic. TEXT by Alexa Olesen
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  • A young Muslim girl prays during Ramadan outside her dormitory 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.
    64-17-DALZE-A-01.JPG
  • Three Muslim women sit in the tiny courtyard of their Little White Mosque tucked down a back alley in China's Muslim heartland, in Wuzhong, China Friday Oct. 20, 2006. Female Imam Wang Shouying, not in picture, does something unthinkable in much of the Islamic world: she leads them and other women in prayers and chants. Everyday she preaches to dozens of women and discusses spiritual and practical matters with them. They are a "unique phenomenon in our modern day Muslim world," said Asra Nomani, a U.S.-based author who has campaigned to end the practice of separating men from women during worship. "Their presence harkens back to a time in Islamic history when women imams weren't out of the ordinary, and many of us wish that time would return."
    64-17-DALZE-A-02.JPG
  • A Muslim faithful arranges Female Imam Wang Shouying’s white scarf at the tiny Little White Mosque, tucked down a back alley in China's Muslim heartland, in Wuzhong, Ningxia, China Friday Oct. 20, 2006. Wang does something unthinkable in much of the Islamic world: she leads other women in prayers and chants, and discusses spiritual and practical matters with them. "We need to train and educate our female comrades how to be good Muslims," Wang, a stout, retired nurse with a no-nonsense manner, said in between prayer sessions. "Women imams are the best qualified to do this because they can relate to the female faithful in ways the male imams can't."
    64-17-DALZE-A-03.JPG
  • Muslim women follow their female Imam in prayers at the Little White Mosque tucked down a back alley in China's Muslim heartland, in Wuzhong, China Friday Oct. 20, 2006. Female Imam Wang Shouying, not in picture, does something unthinkable in much of the Islamic world: she leads women in prayers and chants and discusses spiritual and practical matters with them. They are a "unique phenomenon in our modern day Muslim world," said Asra Nomani, a U.S.-based author who has campaigned to end the practice of separating men from women during worship. "Their presence harkens back to a time in Islamic history when women imams weren't out of the ordinary, and many of us wish that time would return.
    64-17-DALZE-A-04.JPG
  • A Muslim girl attends a lesson 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.
    64-17-DALZE-A-05.JPG
  • Muslim women follow their female Imam in prayers at the  Little White Mosque tucked down a back alley in China's Muslim heartland, in Wuzhong, China Friday Oct. 20, 2006. Female Imam Wang Shouying, not in picture, does something unthinkable in much of the Islamic world: she leads women in prayers and chants and discusses spiritual and practical matters with them. They are a "unique phenomenon in our modern day Muslim world," said Asra Nomani, a U.S.-based author who has campaigned to end the practice of separating men from women during worship. "Their presence harkens back to a time in Islamic history when women imams weren't out of the ordinary, and many of us wish that time would return."
    64-17-DALZE-A-06.JPG
  • A young Muslim girl prays during Ramadan outside her dormitory 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.
    64-17-DALZE-A-07.JPG
  • 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.
    64-17-DALZE-A-08.JPG
  • A young Muslim girl takes a break from her kitchen chores at the Muslim Village Girl's School for Arabic Studies, in Wuzhong, 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.
    64-17-DALZE-A-09.JPG
  • Young Muslim girls study at the Muslim Village Girl's School for Arabic Studies, in Wuzhong, 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.
    64-17-DALZE-A-10.JPG
  • Young Muslim girls pray during Ramadan outside their dormitory 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.
    64-17-DALZE-A-11.JPG
  • Muslim women follow their female Imam in prayers during their Little White Mosque tucked down a back alley in China's Muslim heartland, in Wuzhong, China Friday Oct. 20, 2006. Female Imam Wang Shouying, not in picture, does something unthinkable in much of the Islamic world: she leads women in prayers and chants and discusses spiritual and practical matters with them. They are a "unique phenomenon in our modern day Muslim world," said Asra Nomani, a U.S.-based author who has campaigned to end the practice of separating men from women during worship. "Their presence harkens back to a time in Islamic history when women imams weren't out of the ordinary, and many of us wish that time would return."
    64-17-DALZE-A-12.JPG