Gender and religion

L’article considère l’épisode du mariage pour tous comme un observatoire privilégié des transformations à l’œuvre dans le catholicisme français depuis une trentaine d’années. Parmi les opposants au projet de loi, les catholiques sont apparus comme des acteurs clés. La force de la mobilisation catholique et surtout sa capacité à recruter au-delà des rangs des fidèles, qui sont réduits en nombre, étaient inattendues.
Ce réengagement en politique a montré les ressources d’un groupe religieux considéré depuis des décennies, à tort, comme atone. Le mouvement a également donné à voir la grande pluralité interne au catholicisme français. Principalement conduite par des catholiques d’« identité » en phase avec l’aile conservatrice de l’appareil ecclésiastique, la mobilisation n’était pas unanime. Elle a révélé d’importantes divisions internes.

From a roundtable on Joy Ladin's The Soul of the Stranger: Reading God and Torah from a Transgender Perspective (HBI Series on Jewish Women, Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press, 2019) that consists of this excerpt, followed by commentary solicited from five respondents.

Numerous studies on death in African societies with no doubt have been successfully conducted though their preoccupation has been with the religious and spirituality perspectives. There has been a great deal of theologizing about the spiritual connection between the life here and life after death. Most studies in the humanities have zeroed on burial rituals and rites as means of transition to the spiritual world. Others have concentrated on how different societies cope with the misfortune of death; through grieving, mourning, choosing an heir or heiress and the succession disputes that are always part and parcel of such a culturally acknowledged process. Death is largely constructed as a challenge and misfortune, and many a scholar in the humanities are concerned with how different societies define, perceive, handle and cope with this catastrophe. Most scholarly works have paid a deaf ear to the social value that comes with the demise of an individual. One such social value is the d...

This article analyses the debates about mixed marriages held within the Roman Curia (and especially the Roman Inquisition) between the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries, integrating these debates with the normative and prescriptive literature. These authorities generally considered mixed marriages between Protestants and Catholics valid and even sacramental in virtue of the shared sacrament of the baptism, but at the same time constructed such unions as ‘carnal crimes’ to ‘abhor’. They believed that the most harmful effect of these polluting unions was that the Catholic partner might become tolerant of Protestantism, rendering the ‘heretic’ dangerously, contagiously familiar and abandoning future generations to heresy. Women were a particular concern for these authorities. Drawing upon traditional and somewhat contradictory ideas about women, they saw the wives in these marriages on one hand as particularly likely to be seduced by the ‘false faith’ because of their presumed weakness, but on the other hand they recognised women as a group with a special talent for beguiling men and so entrusted them with a missionary function towards their ‘heretical’ husbands. The role women could assume in mixed marriages therefore dynamised gender relations, but also caused social tension because of the challenge to patriarchal society, especially if they continued to practice their own faith and were entrusted with the religious education of the children.

Eugenics frequently bridged religious and scientific aspirations for social betterment, while eugenic ideas and practices were promoted by a number of American ethnic and racial groups who belonged to different and even competing religious traditions. This essay explores the small and still nascent body of scholarship on eugenics and American religions. This scholarship reveals the important role that American religious expression played in the social dissemination of eugenic ideas and practice in the United States by demonstrating how a number of religious traditions –including Protestantism, Catholicism, African American Islam, and Reformed Judaism –shaped public acceptance of eugenics as a modern reproductive morality. Charting the appeal of eugenics across a spectrum of American religio-racial communities, this essay surveys emerging scholarship to argue that American religions had a direct impact upon the socially uneven and ideologically variable deployment of eugenic thought and practice in the United States.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is known for its doctrine of exaltation: the belief that human beings can become gods who create and reign over their own worlds, even as God the Father has done with this world. The Church also teaches that God the Father is male and that gender is an essential and immutable characteristic of being. Though it intermittently proffers a “God the Mother” whose image women were created in, little has been officially declared of her other than that she exists. As such, while exaltation for men means the relative clarity of looking forward to becoming what God the Father is, exaltation for women is marked by considerable uncertainty.

While seldom examined directly in Mormon theological discourse, exaltation for women receives ancillary illumination when other theological areas of Mormonism are in focus, especially in regards to women and the priesthood, celestial marriage, temple ordinances, and Heavenly Mother. An examination of these four areas paints a clearer picture of what exaltation means for women, revealing that, while there are some promising areas of parity between women and men along with numerous broad affirmations of equality of the sexes, the specifics of liturgy, teaching, practice, and policy in these particular areas depict an androcentric exaltation in which women are lesser deities subordinated to their husbands.

Nos estudos que venho desenvolvendo dentro do Projeto Trilhas do Empoderamento de Mulheres (Projeto Tempo)  tem sido importante interrogar em que circunstâncias as religiões têm operado como forças para o empoderamento de mulheres na perspectiva do ideário feminista.  Tenho procurado entender, também, o que pode contribuir para o deslanche de processos de “desempoderamento.” Em especial, venho me debruçando sobre os resultados de estudos e pesquisas realizadas em Plataforma – bairro de Salvador onde venho trabalhando de forma intermitente desde fins dos anos 1980 - tentando delinear de que forma e em que medida a significativa desaceleração da participação de mulheres do bairro nos movimentos sociais de Salvador, na última década, pode estar relacionada ao crescimento de igrejas e seitas evangélicas na área. Seguindo nessa direção, pretendo elaborar, neste trabalho, uma análise comparativa de dados coletados em pesquisas realizadas em momentos distintos no mesmo bairro (anos 1990; 2004; e 2008), com destaque para a participação das mulheres em diferentes grupos locais ao longo do tempo.

The nature and field of comparative theology is mapped with particular attention to the tradition associated with Francis Clooney but noting the global and wider context of theology in a comparative mode. There are four main parts. Firstly, mapping the current field and exploring its methodological and theological aspects, with particular attention to global and intercultural theologies, comparative religion, and the theology of religions. Secondly, considering what the deconstruction of religion means for comparative theology and how the term " religion " may be deployed and understood after this. It also takes into consideration turns to lived and material religion. Thirdly, issues of power, representation, and the subaltern are considered, including the place of feminist and queer theory in comparative theology. Finally, an original and constructive discussion on philosophical hermeneutics, as well as the way certain hermeneutical lenses can bring issues into focus for the comparative theologian, is offered. The text notes key trends, develops original models of practice and method, and picks out and discusses critical issues and lacunae within the field.

This article explores women-oriented Iyengar yoga practices through a historical, textual and ethnographical analysis. These practices were inaugurated by the teachings of B.K.S Iyengar and Geeta Iyengar and globally expanded by Iyengar yoga teachers. The research focuses on how these pioneering practices where formed, the way they are perceived with respect to the ancient yoga tradition, and the way they are implemented among Iyengar yoga teachers. Drawing on Iyengar literature and interviews with Iyengar yoga teachers, the paper suggests that women-oriented practices are considered by Iyengar members as rooted in ancient knowledge which was illuminated by the Iyengars. Also, women-oriented Iyengar yoga practices manifest what might be considered as the distinct attributes of Iyengar yoga teachings. Women-oriented practices' are perceived as a distinct, yet inseparable segment of Iyengar yoga practices. While Iyengar teachers express diverse standpoints regarding specialized practices' necessity and usage, they are an inherent element of the contemporary Iyengar teaching tradition.

Women's activism in Kuwait has historically intersected with nation building and regime perpetuation projects. The government has attempted to combine instances of modernity with growing political demands from the tribal and Islamist sectors, exploiting women's activism as part of its regime survival strategy.

Author: Anna Beresford
Publisher: CBE International

In his response to a question posed by the Sadducees, Jesus said that those in the resurrection "neither marry nor are given in marriage." The reason women will not be "given in marriage" is that, in the resurrection, they will not be viewed as property.

The paper focuses on the history of the first three Bible women, Mary Wesley, Martha Reuben, and Bathsheba, who came from marginalised communities in Rayalaseema, and emerged as new leaders of social change in the context of colonial modernity and Christianity in the region. The emergence of a modern profession of Bible woman for Dalit women in the 1870s was transformative, opening doors of education, learning, and transforming them into local leaders. Bible women played a pivotal role in the history of Dalits, gender, and missions by shaping the life and community of Dalits and spreading Christianity in Rayalaseema. W hile historical studies have examined Bible women and their contribution to the missionary movement

The concept of witchcraft has been defined by many scholars from the fields of anthropology, religion, sociology and cultural studies. Many times, there have been generalized arguments that witchcraft presents itself in the same way in all societies. Several authors have described witchcraft as a symbol of evil and that those who practise it have no place in society as they suffer constant witch hunt and possible death whenever discovered. To accept such generalized views that witchcraft was never tolerated in any African society points to a narrower conception of witchcraft as it also brings suspicion of ‘othering’ in society. Earlier writings beginning with colonial officials to Evans-Pritchard, Peter Geschierre, Peter Pels and others have conceptualized witchcraft as a ‘deviant behavior’ causing harm. They believe that this harm distorts societal order, and that witches are ever hunted down in those societies they happen to exist. Through interviews with traditional healers and lay members in Busoga, it is established that witchcraft is not entirely dreaded by this society since there are “tolerable acts of witchcraft”. The glorification of witches and condemnation of witchcraft victims in Busoga society disproves previous theoretical conceptions of witchcraft in several African societies. This paper, therefore, addresses the specific ways in which Busoga society conceives witchcraft with specific interest in those aspects that make the Basoga glorify witches and condemn their victims. The paper argues that Busoga society’s determination of ‘acts of witchcraft’ depends on the intention. Besides, some of these acts are legitimate with community approval. It is high time that we thought to re-examine witchcraft as not entirely deviant in itself but instead used as a legitimate weapon against deviant behavior

Author: Dennis J. Preato
Publisher: CBE International

Romans 16:7 presents two interpretive issues. First, was the person named Iounian, the form of the name in Rom 16:7, a man or a woman? Second, what is the meaning of episēmoi en tois apostolois: was Iounian counted as “highly regarded among the apostles” or only “highly regarded by the apostles”? This article serves two main purposes: First, to summarize in one place the arguments regarding Junia’s sex and apostleship. Second, to update the data relating to these arguments, especially regarding the several English Bible translations made available since scholars such as Bernadette Brooten, Linda Belleville, and Eldon Epp brought the issue to the fore. Over the last few decades, many Bible translations have been published and older ones revised to improve accuracy, replace obsolete words, correct translation errors, or appeal to different audiences. These newer translations, along with a careful examination of the historical record, provide conclusive evidence that Junia was indeed a female apostle.

In the final saying of the Gospel of Thomas (logion 114), Jesus speaks of needing to make Mary male so that she can enter the kingdom. Similarly, the male/female dyad is interpreted spiritually as a positive/negative opposition by many of today’s traditional societies. This paper explores maleness with respect to Mary Magdalene and the Virgin Mary from literary, symbolic and scientific perspectives, and considers recent medical rationalizations of Jesus’s miraculous conception. Unexpected Gnostic and Christian parallels are found in the mythic/ritual structure of the Gimi people of Papua New Guinea, which encompasses the necessity of uniting sexual opposites in male form, as well as virgin birth. We also identify gender concepts relevant to the Coptic Gnostic writings in ancient Egyptian religion. The medieval feminization of Jesus – mainly achieved by interpreting the wound in his side as a vagina or breast – provides a later counterweight to the Gnostic masculinizing of Mary. Ultimately, it seems preferable to interpret the side-wound as a surgical incision through which the rib/Eve can be reinserted back into Adam, a transformation to a “dual-gender male” that restores the primal unity. For women, this unity is probably more constructively imaged as a female with a male core, a “phallic female” form of Eve; the template for this dates back at least to Neolithic times. Refractory paradoxes like these warn that gender-based analogies of spirit are inherently limited and must be transcended.

O Vodu haitiano é um sistema de crenças surgido do encontro e hibridismo, realizado em condições de forças muito assimétricas, entre o catolicismo e as crenças dos africanos transportados à força para o trabalho escravo na parte francesa da Ilha da Hispaniola. Ele possui uma série de similaridades com o culto aos voduns da África Ocidental e de sua recriação no nordeste brasileiro e em outras regiões americanas, mas também uma série de especificidades que têm a ver com a incorporação em sua mitologia e práticas das relações políticas e religiosas próprias da história do Haiti, região marcada principalmente pelo seu original processo de independência, surgido de uma rebelião escrava, animado pelos ideais republicanos das Revoluções Americana e Francesa, muito estimulado pela peculiar religiosidade local e alvo de uma sistemática sabotagem da parte dos demais países ocidentais. O Vodu haitiano é organizado ao redor do culto aos loa, espíritos de diversos tipos, que se manifestam entre os seres humanos através de atos prodigiosos ou da incorporação em determinados médiuns, em cerimônias especificamente destinadas a isso. Os loa são organizados em nações e linhagens, reunidos de acordo com sua origens, relações e personalidades. Uma destas linhagens é a das Èrzulie, espíritos femininos muito populares e importantes no sistema vodu, bons para se pensar como este funciona e como se conjugam em seu interior elementos históricos e religiosos de procedências diversas. O objetivo desta oficina é, partindo de uma breve caracterização da história do Haiti e do Vodu, e fazendo um breve inventário sinóptico dos loa Èrzulie, tratar de algumas questões referentes às relações entre história e religião.

Cet article est consacré au rôle du secret dans les systèmes initiatiques du Gabon, et notamment dans le Bwete (ou Bwiti). L’auteur s’intéresse autant au secret initiatique en lui-même qu’aux problèmes éthiques et méthodologiques que son étude pose immanquablement à l’anthropologue sur le terrain. Proposant une approche pragmatique plutôt que sémantique du secret initiatique, l’auteur montre comment ce dernier constitue en réalité un système général de communication qui relie et sépare initiés et profanes, hommes et femmes, aînés et cadets, vivants et ancêtres. S’intéressant également aux transformations contemporaines de cette logique initiatique du secret, l’article analyse les rapports entre secret, oralité et écriture.

The Orthodox Christian tradition has all too often been sidelined in conversations around contemporary religion. Despite being distinct from Protestantism and Catholicism in both theology and practice, it remains an underused setting for academic inquiry into current lived religious practice. This collection, therefore, seeks to redress this imbalance by investigating modern manifestations of Orthodox Christianity through an explicitly gender-sensitive gaze.

This is an anthology edited by Elina Vuola and myself and published by Routledge. We have also written the introduction to this volume.

Theosophist Frances Swiney (1847–1922) was a writer and women’s rights activist. She was mainly concerned with eugenics, sexuality, and feminism. Swiney’s writings and founding the League of Isis in 1907, directly reflects her interest in Theosophy. In her books; The Cosmic Procession or The Feminine Principle in Evolution (1906), The Mystery of the Circle and the Cross (1908), and The Esoteric Teaching of the Gnostics (1909), as well as in several articles in contemporary local and feminist newspapers and theosophical periodicals; Swiney, influenced by G. R. S. Mead, adapted Theosophical interpretations of “Gnosticism” for her feminist argumentation of a Divine Feminine within a cosmic evolution. She was personally and ideationally connected to the Theosophical Society and, therefore, influenced by its interpretations of Gnosticism and its ideas on gender, sexuality, and race. Combining theories on gender, religion, identity, discourse, and individual agency; this article answers the question to what extent and in what ways did Frances Swiney’s appropriations of Gnosticism influence her feminism and vice versa. It aims to illustrate how a biographical approach and focus on Frances Swiney as an influential, though controversial, individual in the British women’s suffrage and women’s rights movement, as well as within esoteric circles, can help to understand the interaction between personal experience and societal change (the possibility of an individual gendered agency in discourse). It aims to enhance the acknowledgement of the interrelation between gender, sexuality and religion, precisely alternative spiritualities and appropriations of “Gnostic” ideas, at that time. This piece stresses the importance of religion and spirituality, precisely, the influence of Gnostic ideas, on conceptions of gender, sex, and sexuality in the British first wave feminism. It puts this question in relation to the ongoing debate concerning the discursive emergence of religion, spirituality/esotericism, and science or secular/rational thought.

This article explores the organisation and whereabouts of the neo-Legionary movement as it was (re)established in Romania in the 1990s. These groups and individuals defined themselves as Legionary, thus entering into the tradition of the Iron Guard/the Legion of Michael the Archangel, which was founded by the charismatic "Captain" Corneliu ZELEA CODREANU (1899-1938). Based on unique fieldwork conducted during the late 1990s, however, this article shows that neo-Legionaries were not unified within a single organisation at that time, but rather that they formed a loosely interconnected network of groups and figures. That is to say, neo-Legionary groups and individuals comprised a loose movement that was characterised by a particular set of references, a shared ideology and symbolism, and a strong family resemblance. Though it had significant ideological structures in common with the inter-war Legion and even mimicked its predecessor‘s organisation and rituals to some extent, the neo-Legionary movement of the first post-Communist decade was primarily a protest movement. It put forward a radical religious, social and political critique of the Communist legacy. This message was, nevertheless, mainly expressed through references to Codreanu‘s movement. The neo-Legionaries‘ political ideas and activity were influenced by their belief that transcendental forces influence life on earth. Their ideology fuses fascism, ethnic nationalism, anti-Semitism, Romanian folklore, mysticism and an idiosyncratic interpretation of Orthodox Christianity.

Islam and Gender: Major Issues and Debates draws attention to the debates on gender in Islam, emphasizing on lived experiences of Muslim women and men. It focuses on the evolving cultural interplay between women studies, critical feminist theories, and normative religious study (p. 2) and discusses the epistemological advancement of the first three waves of feminism and evolving applications of the woman and gender problems in the disciplinary study of religion and theology. Adis Duderija, Alina Alak, and Kristin Hissong explain various theories behind the traditional construction of masculine and feminine dichotomy and trace Muslim women's ontological and epistemological advancement from diverse nationalities. Finally, they contextualize the debates and discourses initiated by Islamic feminists Fatima Mernissi, Rifat Hassan, Amina Wadud, Asma Barlas, and others. The book traces the evolution of gender in Islam and examines the tensions between the modern and Islamic understanding of gender. The book traverses two major themes. First, it examines a traditional gender discourse in the Islamic jurisprudence, and how they have been interpreted through the Quran and Hadith. It scrutinizes the concept of "topos," known as assumption theory, as the basis of the gender hierarchical and patriarchal nature of the religion. The book has a broad discussion on the nature of the premodern Islamic tradition on gender issues, noting its subscription to the "gender oppositionality" theory that operates behind the tradition of patriarchal construction (p. 25). It explores the logic and the dynamics behind the conceptual patriarchal honor and female modesty law concerning the practice of veiling, seclusion, gender segregation, honor-based violence, and female genital mutation. The main argument provided in the book is whether or not these practices are "Islamic"; all these practices are rooted in the same operative logic, termed as "the logic of patriarchal honor," to control and regulate the female sexuality to uphold patriarchal honor (p. 44). The book argues the importance of the interpretative and hermeneutical approach to the Quran and Sunna in forming gender norms and rules in Islam. It includes a short history of the evolution of Quranic exegesis in Islamic thought and also presents the interpretative methods applied to the Quran in classical Islam that facilitated the construction of a hierarchical gender relation (p. 59).

La scène se passe au cœur d’une nuit gabonaise. Au corps de garde, un homme est assis devant un miroir qu’il scrute, les yeux fixes. Il prend la parole et raconte des scènes étranges, apparitions fantastiques ou sombres histoires de famille. Il les raconte à d’autres hommes qui l’écoutent avec attention, massés autour de lui. Il s’agit là d’une initiation au Bwete Misoko, rituel masculin originaire des mitsogo du Gabon central mais aujourd’hui répandu dans la majorité du pays. Ce livre en retrace le parcours initiatique complexe : depuis les rites de passage centrés autour de l’absorption de la plante hallucinogène eboga à des fins visionnaires et thérapeutiques, jusqu’à la dernière étape rituelle au terme de laquelle l’initié pourra à son tour initier des novices et exercer le métier de devin-guérisseur. A partir d’une approche pragmatiste centrée sur la logique interactionnelle du rituel, l’auteur montre comment le Bwete Misoko permet de mettre en scène l’ordre des relations sociales en les rejouant dans le miroir initiatique. L’initiation instaure en effet un autre type de rapport à soi et à autrui par le biais d’une série de pièges qui opèrent une recomposition de la relation aux sorciers, aux femmes et aux ancêtres. En déplaçant ainsi le regard des structures symboliques vers les dynamiques d’interaction, ce livre invite à un renouvellement théorique de l’anthropologie du rituel : le rituel est moins une affaire de croyance et de symboles que de contextes et de relations ; et son efficacité propre repose moins sur la métaphore que sur l’ironie.

Exploring the diverse myriad of female religious identities that exist within the various branches of the Moroccan Sufi Order, Qadiriyya Budshishiyya, today, this book evidences a wide array of religious identities, from those more typical of Berber culture, to those characterised by a ‘sober’ approach to Sufism, as well as those that denote New Age eclecticism.

The book researches the ways in which religious discourses are corporeally endorsed. After providing an overview of the Order historically and today, enunciating the processes by which this local tariqa from North-eastern Morocco has become the international organization that it is now, the book explores the religious body in movement, in performance, and in relation to the social order. It analyses pilgrimage by assessing the annual visit that followers of Hamza Budshish make to the central lodge of the Order in Madagh; it explores bodily religious enactments in ritual performance, by discussing the central practices of Sufi ritual as manifested in the Budshishiyya, and delves attention into diverse understandings of faith healing and health issues.

Gender and Sufism provides a detailed insight into religious healing, sufi rituals and sufi pilgrimage, and is essential reading for those seeking to understand Islam in Morocco, or those with an interest in Anthropology and Middle East studies more generally.

This article highlights the patriarchal nature of the Indian state and discusses this in relation to the state’s response to several rape and molestation cases. It emphasises a number of responses made by political, community and well-known fundamentalist leaders, which have focussed on controlling women’s sexuality and mobility. Such statements are framed within patriarchal notions of female morality, honour and shame through which mores are created for eve-teasing (sexual harassment). The article also discusses public remarks highlighted within the media in relation to the internationally reported Delhi gang rape case, which focussed on the movements and morality of the victim. I argue that such patriarchal responses support a rape culture in India, which has led to increased violence against women and breaches of Indian women’s human rights.

Although in the late 1980s, transgender sex-reassignment surgery was legalized (made halāl) in sharīʿa and/or in state law by the Fatwās of Āyatullāh Khomeini in Iran and Shaykh al-Ṭanṭāwī in Egypt, the issue of whether Islamic theology accepts transgender people as third gender remains underdeveloped. The traditional Islamic line on gender divisions has been criticised for being established on the basis of the binary logic of male and female gender which leaves no capacity to accept a third gender in traditional Islāmic theology. Therefore, the fatwās of both Khomeini and al-Ṭanṭāwī were issued on the basis of the binary logic of male and female gender. However, this article argues that although al-Ṭanṭāwī’s fatwā was vague and clearly built on a gender binary logic, Khomeini’s fatwā was issued on other grounds that may allow for a discussion on transgender Muslims as third gender. Moreover, the article argues that there is a discursive space within Muslim juridical texts which one may justifiably use to underpin an interpretation of a third gender in Islāmic legal and theological debates.
Keywords. Transgender, Sex-Reassignment Surgery’ Fatwās, Khomeini, al-Ṭanṭāwī, Islāmic theology, Third gender

Adis Duderija has comprehensively captured some of the most recent debates in modern Islamic thought on how foundational religious texts are interpreted. In doing so, he has not only rendered a major service to scholarship but he has also distilled the kinds of life-worlds a variety of contemporary Muslim interpreters foster. He is to be commended for this work that will no doubt spark robust debate.”--Ebrahim Moosa, Professor of Religion & Islamic Studies, Department of Religion, Duke University“At best, conceptions of the ‘ideal’ Muslim woman can be inspirational and, at worst, ideological straight-jackets for both real women and for understanding Islam. Adis Duderija does a fine job of exploring the tensions within and between different ideal types and their implications for Muslim women and, let's face it, for men as well.” –Asma Barlas, Professor and Director, Center for the Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity, Ithaca College“This new study by the gifted young scholar, Adis Duderija, substantially raises the bar for all future studies dealing with the issues of fundamentalism, traditionalism, reformism, and authenticity and progress in Muslim thought.” --Khaled Abou El Fadl, Omar and Azmeralda Alfi Professor of Law, Chair of Islamic Studies Program, UCLA School of Law TABLE OF CONTENTS:1.Genealogy of Debates on the Relative Status and the Authenticity of the Various Sources of Legal Authority in the Sunni Islamic Tradition2. Neo-Traditional Salafism: Its Main Proponents and Its Manhaj3.The Delineating Features of Pre-Modern Embedded Manahij and Their Interpretational Implications4.NTS 'Believer' and 'Muslim Woman' Concepts5.Progressive Muslims-Conceptualising and Engaging the Islamic Tradition6.Progressive Muslims' Model of Interpretation (Manhaj) and Their Interpretational Implications7.Progressive Muslims' 'Believer' and 'Muslim Woman' Concepts8.Conclusion