Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction : Islamic authority and the study of female religious leaders / Hilary Kalmbach -- Sources of authority : female Ahong and Qingzhen Nusi (women's mosques) in China / Maria Jaschok -- Women mosque preachers and spiritual guides : publicizing and negotiating women's religious authority in Morocco / Margaret J. Rausch -- Reshaping religious authority in contemporary Turkey : state-sponsored female preachers / Mona Hassan -- From quranic circles to the internet : gender segregation and the rise of female preachers in Saudi Arabia / Amelie Le Renard -- The life of two mujtahidahs : female religious authority in twentieth-century Iran / Mirjam Kunkler and Roja Fazaeli -- The Qubaysiyyat : the growth of an international muslim women's revivalist movement from Syria (1960-2008) / Sarah Islam -- Leading by example-women madrasah teachers in rural North India / Patricia Jeffery, Roger Jeffery, and Craig Jeffrey -- Thinking for oneself? forms and elements of religious authority in Dutch muslim women's groups / Nathal M. Dessing -- Celebrating miss muslim pageants and opposing rock concerts : contrasting the religious authority and leadership of two muslim women in Kazan / N. R. Micinski -- Textual and ritual command : muslim women as keepers and transmitters of interpretive domains in contemporary Bosnia and Herzegovina / Catharina Raudvere -- "She is always present" : female leadership and informal authority in a Swiss muslim women's association / Petra Bleisch Bouzar -- Muslimahs' impact on and acquisition of islamic religious authority in Flanders / Els Vanderwaeren -- Women, leadership, and participation in mosques and beyond : notes from Stuttgart, Germany / Petra Kuppinger -- Remembering Fatimah : new means of legitimizing female authority in contemporary Shifi discourse / Matthew Pierce -- Challenging from within : youth associations and female leadership in Swedish mosques / Pia Karlsson Minganti -- Gender strategy and authority in islamic discourses : female preachers in contemporary Egypt / Hiroko Minesaki -- Translating text to context : muslim women activists in Indonesia / Pieternella Van Doorn-Harder -- Making islam relevant : female authority and representation of Islam in Germany / Riem Spielhaus -- Activism as embodied Tafsir : negotiating women's authority, leadership, and space in north america / Juliane Hammer -- Women's rights to mosque space : access and participation in cape town mosques / Uta Christina Lehmann -- Female leadership in mosques : an evolving narrative / Masooda Bano.