Abstract
This chapter examines the role of women within the Canadian Ismaili Muslim community. Among the mosaic of cultural backgrounds that characterize Islam, are the voices of women within the Ismaili Tariqah from the South Asian, Central Asian and Middle Eastern Traditions. Highlighting historical accounts of prominent Ismaili women, particularly from the Fatimid era and through the guidance of Fatimid Imam-Caliphs, enables us to understand how women within this milieu envisioned their own role. In turn, this sheds light on the nature of the role of Ismaili women today. The ethical framework of the Imamate Institutions, inspired by the Qur’an itself, places importance on meritocracy regardless of gender and cultural background, thereby enabling women to envision their role from a nuanced perspective. This allows the Ismaili woman to see her role not so much as rooted to a past as much as a lived and dynamic experience within a particular context, bringing fluidity to faith, practice and communal engagement.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Office of the Imam.
- 2.
Within the faith of Islam, scripture has always had a role to play in the establishment of religiously defined gendered roles. For example, “women figures of the sacred past,” as Stowasser (1994) describes them, found within the Qur’an, serve as examples of “warning” or “emulation” and become, in some form, “role models” to other Muslim women who encounter the stories of these women as they are immortalized in the Qur’an serving as “models for” and “models of” a desired Islamic way of life (ibid., p. 21).
However, the interpretation of these scriptures is problematic in some circles. For example, Medieval Islamic exegesis understood women’s nature not only as “weak” but also as “dangerous to the established moral order” (as Stowasser 1994, p. 21). Because of this, “both the feminine aspect of voice within the text and the female voice about the text have been marginalized” (Wadud-Muhsin 1998, p. 321, emphasis added). Due to these barriers, later generations of Muslim women thinkers and scholars advocated for a new Qur’anic tafsir (exegesis), one that placed the possibilities of unfolding the truths found in the Qur’an in the hands of women who traditionally were excluded from the field of exegesis. Therefore, from a scriptural perspective, the start of an emancipatory movement emerged bringing a new hermeneutics based on critical reading of the Qur’an by the hands of Muslim women.
- 3.
- 4.
- 5.
Lafontaine-Baldwin Lecture.
- 6.
Colloquially used for ‘community of Ismailis’.
- 7.
Jamatkhana is derived from Persian meaning house khana of congregation jamat. Further details are provided under section on volunteerism.
- 8.
Prophet Muhammad, in an often quoted hadith, had told his followers to seek knowledge even if it is as far as China.
- 9.
- 10.
This idea of being a “good Ismaili” is not necessarily defined by the broader community as someone who volunteers within the community but it is interesting and important to note that for Raziya, the idea of service towards the community is tantamount to her Ismaili identity.
References
Cortese, D., & Calderini, S. (2006). Women and the Fatimids in the world of Islam. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Czarniawska-Joerges, B. (2004). Narratives in social science research. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Daftary, F. (1998a). A short history of the Ismailis. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Daftary, F. (1998b). Sayyida Hurra: The Ismaili Sulayhid Queen of Yemen. In G. R. D. Hambly (Ed.), Women in the medieval Islamic world: Power, patronage, and piety (pp. 117–130). New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Daftary, F. (2000). The Ismaili Da’wa outside the Fatimid Dawla. London: The Institute of Ismaili Studies.
Daftary, F. (2006). Fatimids. In Encyclopaedia Iranica (1999) (pp. 850–862). London: The Institute of Ismaili Studies.
Damji, T., & Lee, C. (1995). Gender role identity perceptions of Ismaili Muslim men and women. The Journal of Social Psychology, 135(2), 215–223.
Dossa, P. (1999). (Re)Imagining aging lives: Ethnographic narratives of Muslim women diaspora. Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, 14, 245–272.
Halm, H. (1997). The Fatimids and their traditions of learning. London: I.B. Tauris & Co.
His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan. (2007). Speech at the inauguration of the Restored Monuments in Darb al-Ahmar, 26 October 2007. Cairo, Egypt. http://www.akdn.org/Content/574. Accessed 22 July 2011.
His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan. (2010). Speech at the 10th Annual Lafontaine-Baldwin Symposium, October 15, 2010. Toronto, Canada. http://www.akdn.org/Content/1018. Accessed 10 July 2011.
Jiwa, S. (2003). Religious pluralism in Egypt: The Ahl-al-Kitab in early Fatimid times. London: The Institute of Ismaili Studies.
Jiwa, S. (2009). Towards a Shi’i Mediterranean empire: Fatimid Egypt and the founding of Cairo. London: I.B. Tauris & Co.
Jiwa, S. (2011). Governing diverse communities: A medieval Muslim illustration. London: The Institute of Ismaili Studies.
Kaiser, P. J. (1996). Culture, transnationalism, and civil society: Aga Khan social service initiatives in Tanzania. Westport: Praeger.
Kassam, Z. (2011). The gender policies of Aga Khan III and Aga Khan IV. In F. Daftary (Ed.), A modern history of the Ismailis (pp. 247–264). London: I.B. Tauris & Co.
Keshavjee, R. (2004). The redefined role of the Ismaili Muslim woman through higher education and the professions. Unpublished doctoral thesis, Department of Adult Education and Psychology, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, the University of Toronto, Canada.
Leonard, K. (2009). Transnational and cosmopolitan forms of Islam in the West. Harvard Middle Eastern and Islamic Review, 8, 176–199.
Ross-Sheriff, F., & Nanji, A. (1991). Islamic identity, family and community: The case of the Nizari Ismaili Muslims. In H. Waugh, S. Abu-Laban, & R. Qureshi (Eds.), Muslim families in North America. Alberta: The University of Alberta Press.
Rubin, H., & Rubin, I. (1995). Qualitative interviewing: The art of hearing data. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Sir Sultan Mohamed Shah Aga Khan III. (1955). The memoirs of Aga Khan: World enough and time (Foreword by W. Somerset Maugham). London: Cassell.
Stowasser, B. F. (1994). Women in the Qur’an, traditions, interpretations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
The Globe and Mail. John Stackhouse and Patrick Martin, Saturday, February 2, 2002 – Print Edition, Page F3. Toronto, Canada.
The Institute of Ismaili Studies (IIS). (2007). The Ismaili community. London: The Institute of Ismaili Studies.
Vellani, S. (2001, September). The institutions of the Ismaili Muslim community. Talk at “The Muslim Regional and Cultural Evolution of the Islamic World” Conference. Arrabida Convent, Portugal.
Wadud-Muhsin, A. (1998). Qur’an and woman. In C. Kurzman (Ed.), Liberal Islam (pp. 127–138). New York: Oxford University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mamodaly, A., Fakirani, A. (2012). Voices from Shia Imami Ismaili Nizari Muslim Women: Reflections from Canada on Past and Present Gendered Roles in Islam. In: Lovat, T. (eds) Women in Islam. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4219-2_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4219-2_15
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-4218-5
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-4219-2
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawPhilosophy and Religion (R0)