Dr. Amina Wadud

Islamic Feminist & Scholar

Dr. Amina Wadud is a respected and well known Islamic feminist and scholar. She was a full Professor of Islamic Studies at the Virginia Commonwealth University, School of World Studies until 2008, when she became emeritus. She is currently a Visiting Scholar at the Starr King School for Ministry in California. Immediately prior to that, she was a visiting scholar at University of Melbourne, and in 2009, a Visiting Professor at Gadah Mada University in Yogykarta, Indonesia.

She is the author of several books, including Inside the Gender Jihad (One World Publisher, 2006), and Qur'an and Woman (Oxford University Press, 1999), a ground breaking work on gender inclusive Qur'anic exegesis, now available in at least 7 translations.

Dr. Wadud was invited to lead the Friday prayer of male and female Muslims, sponsored by the Progressive Muslim Union in New York on March 18, 2005, helping to create new, more gender inclusive traditions in place of exclusively male traditions. She was a core member of Sisters in Islam, Malaysia (an organization of Muslim women in Malaysia which seeks to articulate women's rights in Islam by emphasizing the need to interpret the Qur'an and the Hadith in their proper historical and cultural contexts) between 1989-2005. She has traveled to more than 40 countries as a consultant and partner on issues of Muslim women and human rights.