In this talk, Tazeen M. Ali explores 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.
Tazeen M. Ali is Assistant Professor of Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis. A 2010 graduate of Lehigh University (double major in Religion Studies and Biology), she holds a Ph.D. from Boston University. Professor Ali's research and teaching focus on Islam in America, women's religious authority, and the intersections of Islam, gender, and race.
