Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion

amina wadud is professor emeritus of Islamic studies and a visiting scholar at the Starr King School for the Ministry, Berkeley, California. Because of her embodied ethics, she is best known internationally as the "Lady Imam." Her intellectual work focuses on critical reading of Islamic classical sources and the sacred text from a gender-inclusive perspective. Her first book, Qur'an and Woman: Rereading the Text from a Woman's Perspective (1992), transformed the [End Page 67] way people talk about women in Muslim scripture. Her second book, Inside the Gender Jihad: Women's Reform in Islam (2006), integrated the personal politics of Muslim women's movements with both spiritual and philosophical discourses regarding Muslim women, agency, and authority in Islamic thought and practice. wadud is a founding member (with Zainah Anwar, Askiah Adam, Norani Othman, Rashidah Abdullah, Rose Ismail, and Sharifah Zuriah Aljeffri) of Sisters in Islam, a civil society organization committed to promoting the rights of women within the frameworks of Islam and universal human rights. Sisters of Islam first assembled in 1987 within the Association of the Women Lawyers when several women lawyers and their academic, activist, and journalist friends came together under the association's sharia subcommittee to study problems associated with the implementation of new Islamic Family Laws that had been legislated in Malaysia in 1984. She is also a member of the Musawah network (directed by Sisters in Islam coordinator Zainah Anwar). Musawah, which means "equality" in Arabic, is a global movement for equality and justice in Muslim families. It was launched in February 2009 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, at a meeting attended by over 250 women and men from around fifty different countries. Musawah is pluralistic and inclusive, bringing together nongovernmental organizations, activists, scholars, legal practitioners, policy makers, and grassroots women and men from around the world.

Currently, wadud is doing research (funded by the Arcus Foundation) on sexual diversity, human dignity, and Islamic classical sources to further her methodological work as it intersects with the lived realities of Muslims and their allies on issues of social justice and Islamic theology. She is the architect of what she refers to as the tawhidic paradigm, a humanist Islamic rubric for universal human rights. She is mother of five and Nana to six.

This interview took place at the "Contemporary Women in Islam: Politics and Identity" conference hosted by the Lewis Global Studies Center at Smith College in February 2018 while wadud was serving as Smith Global Scholar in Residence. The transcript that appears here has been substantially condensed, lightly reorganized, and edited for clarity by Kecia Ali. The entire interview, which contains significant additional material on spirituality, ritual practice, race, and racism, can be viewed along with other videos from the conference on YouTube.¹