The Women's Mosque of America - by Tazeen M Ali (Hardcover)

About the Book

"The Women's Mosque of America analyzes how American Muslim women cultivate new forms of Islamic authority that contend with gender inequality, anti-Blackness, and global Islamophobia by approaching the Qur'an as a tool for social justice and community building, providing insights on Islamic authority at the intersections of gender, religious space, and national belonging"--

Book Synopsis

Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2023

Analyzes how American Muslim women assert themselves as religious actors in the US and beyond, using the Qur'an as a tool for social justice and community building

The Women's Mosque of America (WMA), a multiracial, women-only mosque in Los Angeles, is the first of its kind in the United States. Since 2015, the WMA has provided a space for Muslim women to build inclusive communities committed to gender and social justice, challenging the dominant mosque culture that has historically marginalized them through inadequate prayer spaces, exclusion from leadership, and limited access to religious learning.

Tazeen M. Ali explores this congregation, focusing on how members contest established patriarchal norms while simultaneously contending with domestic and global Islamophobia that renders their communities vulnerable to violence. Drawing on textual analysis of WMA sermons and ethnographic interviews with community members, and utilizing Black feminist and womanist frameworks, Ali investigates how American Muslim women create and authorize new conceptions of Islamic authority. Whereas the established model of Islamic authority is rooted in formal religious training and Arabic language expertise, the WMA is predicated on women's embodied experiences, commitments to social and racial justice, English interpretations of the Qur'an, and community building across Islamic sects and in an interfaith context.

Situating the US at the center rather than at the margins of debates over Islamic authority and showing how American Muslim women assert themselves as meaningful religious actors in the US and beyond, Ali's work offers new insights on Islamic authority as it relates to the intersections of gender, religious space, and national belonging.

Review Quotes

"Women's Mosque of America stands out as an important and skillful contribution to the study of gender, race, and religion."--Joseph Stuart "The Maydan"

"Ali brings an insightful, interdisciplinary, critical analysis to an already exciting reflection of women's agency and authority as is the goal of the Women's Mosque in America."--Amina Wadud "The Maydan"

"Ali deftly situates the WMA at the junction of the historical and global factors that shape Islamic authority and the development of US religions. Walking us through the various ways US Muslim women navigate domination by performing roles of religious authority, Ali's book is a crucial intervention at a time when mainstream mosques and certain religious authority figures are joining in right-wing discourses about gender-fluid bodies."--Esra Tunc "The Maydan"

"As scholars of Islam continue to grapple with how to do race, think with Blackness, and engage Black Studies, Ali's framing of WMA in conversation with Black feminist thought and African American religious history offers an important example of how to meaningfully carry out such work."--Iman AbdoulKarim "The Maydan"

"Just as the Women's Mosque of America has played a vital role in reshaping the landscape of Muslim women's roles in contemporary theological spaces, Ali's book significantly contributes to institutionalizing women's perspectives within the mainstream religious studies discipline. By focusing on American Muslim female scholars and amplifying their voices, the book actively challenges the dominance of canonized knowledge perpetuated by male scholars."--Irum Shiekh "The Maydan"

"Tazeen M. Ali's book provides readers with an incredibly rich, well-researched, accessible, and thought-provoking analysis of L.A.'s Women's Mosque of America."--Inaash Islam "The Maydan"

"The Women's Mosque of America offers a compelling look at women's religious authority, critical reflection on the racialization of Americanness, and the rising profile of women in civic leadership, even while those very same women are experiencing marginalization in religious organizations."-- "Reading Religion"

"A crucial contribution to the scholarship on women and religion in the US as well as to the literatures on American Islam and Islamophobia. Ali's deeply researched and finely nuanced analysis of the Women's Mosque of America paints a vivid picture of a robust and distinctive form of women's authority sustained in that space. Scholars and students alike will learn much here about the diversity of Muslim life and women's experiences in our contemporary world."--R. Marie Griffith, author of Making the World Over: Confronting Racism, Misogyny, and Xenophobia in U.S. History

"Offers a sophisticated and complex perspective on how religious authority is constructed in North American Muslim communities. At once timely and compelling."--Ayesha S. Chaudhry, Canada Research Chair in Religion, Law and Social Justice, University of British Columbia

"Superb. A layered, nuanced study showing how American Muslim women reimagine religious authority and leadership as well as traditions of scriptural interpretation in ways that are consequential far beyond their mosque."--Zareena Grewal, author of Islam Is a Foreign Country: American Muslims and the Global Crisis of Authority

About the Author

Tazeen M. Ali is Assistant Professor in the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis.