From ABC Radio (Australia)
China isn’t the heartland of Islam, but it’s the only country in the world to have a long history of female imams.
China isn’t the heartland of Islam, but it is the only country in the world to have a long history of female imams.
A small group of women in central China’s Henan province have been imams in their community for centuries.
This part of China is home to less than four per cent of China’s roughly 23 million Muslims.
The believers are from an ethnic minority known as the Hui.
A group of Muslim grannies wander into a mosque behind an ancient city wall shortly before noon prayers on a Friday.
A crowd of 50 soon fill the prayer room.
Ge Caixia is their religious leader, a female imam in the mosque that’s dedicated only to women.
She takes her place among them along the first row when it’s time to pray.
If Ge Caixia were a male imam, the rest of the congregation would be standing behind her.
“When we have to conduct prayers at funerals, it’s the man who leads,” she said. “The woman can only participate.”
These differences set her aside from her male peers.
Ge Caixia’s standing in the community remains significant. There aren’t many people like her in China, let alone the world.
Henan province has about 100 female imams. No other place in the country has such a high proportion.
Teaching Islam Ge Caixia’s calling
Ge Caixia says she found it difficult to say no to her heart when the time came to make a decision between the secular world and the chance to spread the teachings of Islam.
