Islam and female leadership: insights from women leaders and Muslim scholars

This paper seeks to study female leaders’ beliefs and experiences and also Muslim scholars’ views on how Islam and its interpretations impact women leaders. Drawing on in-depth semi-structured interviews with 11 female leaders and 6 Muslim scholars in Jordan, both groups indicate that Islamic guidelines support gender equality and reforming all types of gender discrimination. The findings also show that the hindering point to female leadership is the misinterpretation and false assumptions of Islamic principles and guidelines. To our knowledge, this is the first attempt that incorporates Muslim scholars’ and female leaders’ views in gender research that is specifically designed to research the Jordanian context. The salient novelty and significance of this study were achieved through challenging the existing conception of Islam as a source that holds women leaders back and therefore, it highlights the contextual applicability and extension of the Islamic feminist theory.