Amina Wadud

Wadud was to deliver a lecture on 29 July 2013 on 'Gender and Reform in Islam' at the University of Madras in Chennai, India. The scheduled lecture was cancelled because police cited possible law and order problems in view of opposition by Muslim groups. S.M. Syed Iqbal, state secretary of India Towheed Jamad, said that she comes with the backing of the US government and offers so-called progressive views that are against the basic tenets of Islam, and that his outfit would protest in front of the venues if she were allowed to talk.

Wadud has spoken at universities, as well as grassroots, government and non-government forums throughout the United States, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Africa and Europe. Her speaking engagements include the keynote address "Islam, Justice, and Gender" at the 2008 international conference Understanding Conflicts: Cross-Cultural Perspectives, held at Aarhus University, Denmark; a paper titled “Islam Beyond Patriarchy Through Gender Inclusive Qur’anic Analysis” at the 2009 Musawah - Equality and Justice in the Family conference; the Regional Conference on Advancing Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment in Muslim Societies, hosted by United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the International Centre for Islam and Pluralism (ICIP) in Jakarta, Indonesia, in March 2009; a workshop on "Sharia and Human Rights" at the University of Bergen, Norway in late November 2009; a public lecture titled "Muslim Women and Gender Justice: Methods, Motivation and Means" to the Faculty of Arts, Asia Institute, at the University of Melbourne, Australia in February 2010; a lecture on “Tawhid and Spiritual Development for Social Action” at Muslims for Progressive Values at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California in July 2011.

In 2007, Wadud received the Danish Democracy Prize.

In 2007, Wadud was the subject of a documentary by Iranian-Dutch filmmaker, Elli Safari, called "The Noble Struggle of Amina Wadud".

Wadud was interviewed on WNYC radio on July 14, 2006, to discuss her book Inside the Gender Jihad. She responded to questions and comments about other activities including women in gender-mixed Friday prayer service.

More than a decade later, Wadud decided to lead Friday prayers (salat) for a congregation in the United States, breaking with Islamic laws, which allows only male imams (prayer leaders) in mixed-gender congregations. (See Women as imams for a discussion of the issue.) On Friday 18 March 2005, Wadud acted as imam for a congregation of about 60 women and 40 men seated together, without any gender separation. The call to prayer was given by another woman, Suheyla El-Attar. It was sponsored by the Muslim Women's Freedom Tour, under the leadership of Asra Nomani, by the website Muslim WakeUp!, and by members of the Progressive Muslim Union. A small number of protestors gathered outside against the prayer.

Wadud has continued with her speaking engagements and to lead mixed-gender Friday prayer services. On October 28, 2005, following her talk at the International Congress on Islamic Feminism in Barcelona, Spain, she was invited to lead a congregation of about thirty people. Following an invitation by the Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford, she led a mixed-gender prayer in the United Kingdom, even though Muslims planning to attend were threatened with being disowned by conservative imams through personal visits from mosques.

Wadud was an advisor to the documentary Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet (2002), produced by [Unity Productions Foundation] and broadcast on PBS.

In August 1994, Wadud delivered a Friday pre-khutbah (sermon) on "Islam as Engaged Surrender" at the Claremont Main Road Mosque in Cape Town, South Africa. Women delivering even a pre-khutbah talk was unheard of in the Muslim world. It was widely mis-reported that Wadud had actually delivered the khutbah (the formal Arabic sermon delivered from the pulpit), which she did not (she delivered the main talk - in English and not from the pulpit - however a pre-khutbah talk is not part of the formal Friday ceremony). As a result, there were attempts in Virginia by some Muslims to have her dismissed from her position at Virginia Commonwealth University.

In 1992, Wadud accepted a position as Professor of Religion and Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University. She retired in 2008, and took up a position as a visiting professor at the Center for Religious and Cross Cultural Studies at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

From 1989 to 1992, she worked as an assistant professor in Quranic Studies at IIUM. While there, she published her dissertation Qur'an and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman's Perspective and co-founded the non-governmental organization Sisters in Islam. The book is still used by the NGO as a basic text for activists and academics, but it is banned in the United Arab Emirates.

She received her M.A. in Near Eastern Studies and her Ph.D. in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the University of Michigan in 1988. During graduate school, she studied in Egypt, including advanced Arabic at the American University in Cairo, Qur'anic studies and tafsir (exegesis or religious interpretation) at Cairo University, and philosophy at Al-Azhar University.

In 1975, Wadud graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor of science.

In 1972, she converted to Islam, while a student at the University of Pennsylvania, which she attended from 1970 to 1975. She officially changed her name to Amina Wadud two years later.

Amina Wadud (born September 25, 1952) is an American Muslim philosopher with a progressive focus on Qur'an exegesis (interpretation of the holy text).