Defying opposition from conservatives

At 7 am on November 17, in a classroom in the Wunan Mosque, female imam Ma Guixia is guiding female students in Arabic Koranic chants.

Ma has over 40 students, mostly middle-aged and elderly women. Learning Arabic is a lengthy process and it takes a minimum of two years hard studying for students to fluently read the Koran.

Despite these challenges, the women find the classes to be beneficial. "It has taught us how to be good Muslim women. It also gives us a moral framework, so that we can behave well. It enriches us," a 60-year-old woman surnamed Zhang who has been a student for over six years told the Global Times.

Aside from their religious role, female imams teach women about family planning, in accordance with government policies. In the classroom of the mosque, information about the local family-planning association hangs on the wall, and boxes of condoms, which are freely available to all, sit in a glass cabinet.

"Female imams have multiple tasks. They are obliged to teach religious knowledge, laws and social sciences, as well as ethnic and religious policies," Zhang Yongzhong, deputy director of Wuzhong's Bureau of Ethnic and Religious Affairs, told the Global Times.

Female imams are relatively well educated and usually enjoy a high degree of respect in their communities. Apart from acting as spiritual leaders for female believers, they also play an important social role.

They help to heal damaged relationships between mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law, offer shelter and support when women's rights and interests are infringed, and teach women about what protections the law can offer them.

Wang Jinyu, imam of Wuzhong's Ancient City Mosque, said that female imams have proved to be helpful in improving the quality of Hui women's religious life.

"It used to be difficult for male imams to talk to female believers. Female imams can communicate better with Muslim women in ways that male imams can't," Wang told the Global Times.

However Wang pointed out that some conservative forces within the Hui community believe that the growth in the number of female imams is disrupting the natural order of the religion.

When female imams are attached to a men-only mosque, their status is lower than the male imams that lead such institutions. They have to routinely report their teaching syllabus to the male imams, Wang said.

While leading prayers, female imams are not allowed to stand apart from the congregation, in front, as male imams do. They instead are only allowed to stand in the middle of the first row of the congregation.

Jin spoke of other forms of hostility to women imams. She said that some male imams showed contempt toward female imams when they address congregations during festivals.

This doesn't faze her, however. "Women are born to shoulder more responsibility than men. I just wanted to teach other women to think and act independently, and help them break free of the negative influence of the conservative forces," she said.