MUSLIM AND JEWISH FEMALE RELIGIOUS TRAILBLAZERS

In the last century, in both Islam and Judaism, female religious trailblazers have taken on roles traditionally dominated by men. In this study, I examine parallels between individual Muslim and Jewish female religious trailblazers under three rubrics: Exegesis of the Holy Book: Nehama Leibowitz and Aisha Abd al-Rahman; Delving into Oral Law: Judith Hauptman and Kecia Ali; and Crafting Responsa: Suad Saleh and Malka Puterkovsky. Remarkably, although these Muslim and Jewish women functioned in very different societies and within rather different religious traditions, they have much in common. The reasons for this seem to be the similar sociologies of Judaism and Islam, on the one hand, and the increasing globalization of the twentieth and twentyfirst centuries, on the other. Inevitably, there has been disagreement as to the extent to which these women were themselves feminists or contributed to women's advancement, dealt with the patriarchy of their time and place, or explicitly supported male dominance.