When Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina gather for Friday prayers, you often see only men. As in other Muslim countries, it is not common for women to attend Friday prayers in the mosque in this Western Balkan country. But that is slowly changing, as Muslim women no longer want to remain invisible.
Bosnia is a secular state, where men and women are equal before the law. Considerable efforts have been made in recent decades to better protect women from violence and to reduce gender discrimination. However, especially among the country’s three major religious communities – Catholic, Orthodox and Islamic – social and cultural norms that hinder gender equality remain prevalent.
Moreover, since the end of the Bosnian war (1992-1995), religion in the respective ethnic group has gained importance in all communities in the country – among Muslim Bosniaks, Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats. In Muslim families, very conservative role models still prevail in some cases, according to which women should first and foremost be mothers and take care of the family, although the social reality is now much different.
WITH THE QUR’AN FOR WOMEN’S RIGHTS
“Muslim feminists fight for women’s rights within the Islamic framework of reference,” says Bosnian sociologist Dermana Kuric from the University of Sarajevo in an interview with DW. Many of them do this by taking an active role in society, without openly questioning anti-feminist interpretations of the Quran. Meanwhile, highly educated Muslim women also consciously confront the positions of traditional Islamic scholars, which aim to confine women to a subservient role in the family and the Islamic community. “For Islamic feminists, it’s about gender relations that are based on autonomy and individual responsibility – as opposed to control or domination,” Kuric emphasizes.
Bosnian Muslim feminists are part of a broader movement that has been gaining more and more influence in the Islamic world since the 1980s. They read the Quran from a feminine perspective and see it as an empowering tool for their struggle for more rights. With the translation into Bosnian of the well-known book “Sultanate. The Power of Women in the Islamic World” by Moroccan sociologist Fatima Mernissi (1940-2015), one of the founders of Islamic feminism, gender researcher Zilka Spahic-Siljak from the University of Sarajevo has significantly contributed to making the ideas of Islamic feminism known in Bosnia.
INTERPRETATION BY MALE SCHOLARSHIPS
“Like other religions, Islam has been shaped by the interpretation of its sacred scriptures by male scholars, in the context of their respective experiences,” says Spahic-Siljak. “Women’s experiences are almost completely unrepresented, except in a few isolated cases. But justice is a central principle in the Quran, and there can be no justice if women are not equal.” In addition to her work as a lecturer at the University of Sarajevo, Spahic-Siljak has also deepened this topic in universities in 2021, founding the online school “Feminism and Religion” together with Catholic feminist nun Jadranka Rebeka Anic.
NO JUSTIFICATION OF VIOLENCE
But Islamic feminism is not just an academic issue. As part of a campaign against domestic violence, Spahic-Siljak in 2023 criticized Islamic scholars who, by referring to Surah 4:34, justify men’s violence against women. An influential imam, Senaid Zajimovic, was open to a new interpretation of the Surah. In a theological statement, he emphasized that the Quran should not be used to justify male domination and violence against women.
“Over the last few decades we have seen that Muslim women are gaining more space within the Islamic community,” sociologist Dermana Kuric points out. It may be small steps, but the progress is noticeable. Thus, women are also seeking to participate in Friday prayers. “Formally their participation has never been prohibited; it was simply a result of the male-dominated culture that they did not participate.”
FEMALE IMAM NOT ON THE AGENDA?
There are also movements among theologians. Although there are still no female professors of theology in Bosnia’s Islamic-theological faculties – there are such in fields such as languages and pedagogy. The younger generation of theologians is represented at the level of assistant professors – and there is hope that in the coming years they will advance to professorial positions. However, the demand for female imams is not yet on the agenda. They have so far only existed in a few Islamic communities in the West, such as in the USA, since 2005, when Islamic scholar Amina Wadud led a mixed Friday prayer in New York, causing a stir around the world.
The institutions of Islam in Bosnia date back to the Habsburg rule (1878-1918). When the Austro-Hungarian Empire occupied Bosnia in 1878, it officially recognized Muslims as a religious community. The Habsburg monarchy created an organization of Bosnian Muslims with an administrative structure modeled after the Christian churches. The position of “Reisu-l-ulema” was also established. This grand mufti remains the highest representative of Muslims in Bosnia to this day.
“It is still difficult for women to reach positions of power and influence in the Islamic community,” political scientist Djevada Garic tells DW. “For example, we have many female teachers in Islamic schools, but no women in the Rijaset, the highest decision-making body, or in the Council of Muftis. Only 11 out of a total of 87 representatives in the parliament of the Islamic Community are women.” Garic herself was one of the first women in a leading position, as head of international relations in the Islamic community. Demana Kuric emphasizes that change has begun. Today, more women dare to run for positions, for example in the community’s parliament. In addition, the current grand mufti, Husein Kavazovic, has created a special department for the empowerment of women. Islamic theologians now have a professional perspective and the opportunity to get to know Bosnia’s Muslim institutions and their structures better.
According to sociologist Kuric, there is no “opposition to the promotion of women in the sense that men say: ‘You don’t dare take leadership positions.'” However, much remains to be done: “What I lack is a clear institutional strategy from the Islamic community to seriously advance women as believers and as theologians and to better include them.” (DW)