Book Talk | The Woman’s Mosque of America
In this talk, Tazeen M. Ali discusses her recent book The Women’s Mosque of America: Authority & Community in US Islam, published with NYU Press in November 2022. Her talk will explore how American Muslim women create and authorize new conceptions of authority at the Women’s Mosque of America, a woman-only mosque in Los Angeles. These women form new configurations of religious authority against both the marginalization they face in their patriarchal religious communities and the Islamophobia that is prevalent in mainstream US society. The book is available for purchase here at a 30% discount using code: NYUAU30 at checkout.
Speaker:
Professor Tazeen M. Ali is Assistant Professor of Religion and Politics at the John C. Danforth Center at Washington University in St. Louis. Her research and teaching focus on Islam and gender in America, women and religion, and Muslims in entertainment media and popular culture. Ali earned her PhD in Religious Studies and a certificate in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Boston University in 2019. Fellowships and grants from the Center for Islam in the Contemporary World, the Washington University Center for the Humanities, and the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation have supported her writing and research. She is the author of The Women’s Mosque of America: Authority & Community in US Islam, published with NYU Press in November 2022, which analyzes how American Muslim women negotiate the Islamic tradition to cultivate authority and build gender-equitable worship communities. Ali also writes for public audiences and her work has been published in outlets such as Religion & Politics, The Conversation, and Middle East Eye. She is on Twitter @tazeenmali.
Moderator:
Professor Shenila Khoja-Moolji is the Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani Associate Professor of Muslim Societies at Georgetown University. She researches and writes about the interplay of gender, race, religion, and power in relation to Muslim populations.