Women as imams

There is a current controversy among Muslims regarding the circumstances in which women may act as imams, i.e. to lead a congregation in salat (prayer). (Note that there are many types of Islamic religious leaders aside from imams, and that Muslim women have featured as theological figures in the history of Islam.) A number of schools of Islamic thought do make exceptions for taraawih (optional Ramadan prayers) or for a congregation consisting only of close relatives.

Historically, certain sects have considered it acceptable for women to function as imams. This was true not only in the Arab heartland of early Islam, but in China more recently. The debate has been reactivated during the 21st century. Proponents have argued that the spirit of the Qur'an and the letter of a disputed hadith indicate that women should be able to lead mixed, as opposed to sex-segregated congregations, and that the prohibition against the practice originated from sexism in the medieval environment and from inaccurate patriarchal interpretations of religious texts, rather than from a spirit of true Islam.

The Quran does not address this issue; relevant precedents are therefore sought for in the hadith, the traditions attributed to Muhammad; the sunnah, his actions, including but not limited to hadith; and the principle of ijma, consensus.

The onlyhadith that unequivocally states that women may not lead mixed congregations is Ibn Majah (Kitab iqamat is-salat was-sunnati fiha) #1134, narrated through Jabir ibn Abdullah: "A woman may not lead a man in Prayer, nor may a Bedouin lead a believer of the Muhajirun or a corrupt person lead a committed Muslim in Prayer."

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Wikipedia