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2 Balaraba B. M. Sule and Priscilla E. Starratt Islamic Leadership Positions for Women in Contemporary Kano Society This chapter reports on the lives of several contemporary women in Kano, Nigeria, who occupy significant leadership roles of an Islamic nature. Although it is premature to base any generalizations about the society as a whole on such a small sampling, we will indicate new directions for further research. Earlier studies have been criticized for giving excessive attention to the role of women in spirit possession cults and the use of Islam to socialize women to accept their subordination to men (Boyd and Last 1985:284).1 In a plea for research on female scholars, saints, poets, teachers, and leaders in Muslim Africa, Boyd and Last asked, "If women in these Islamic societies really are so concerned with things religious, is it not very probable that a proportion of women will also prove to be pious Muslims-a category admittedly harder (and less exciting) to research?" (1985 :284). Such pious Muslim women certainly do exist, and among them are a number who have leadership roles of a specifically Islamic nature, suggesting that women are not just marginally involved in the Islamic faith. The roles of these women as scholars, teachers , mystics, and social workers necessitates a reexamination of the previous, stereotyped descriptions of Muslim women in Nigeria on a much wider basis. 1. For example, "Bari thus provides women with a symbolic escape from the pervasive 'maleness ' ofIslam ..." and "Extensive survey research in Kana clearly establishes that women support the 'Islamic way of life' and by implication their subordinate status." (Callaway 1984: 438, 44445 ). 29 30 Part 1. Rausa Women in Islam We begin this study with a look at opinions about the position of women in Islam. Unless the controversial nature of women's actual position in Islam is understood, the implications of Islam for future roles of Kano women will not be appreciated.2 We will then present the results of our field research concerning contemporary Kano women in Islamic leadership roles. The Position of Women in Islam The status accorded to women by the Muslim faith is much disputed, even or rather especially, among Muslims themselves. The Moroccan sociologist Fatima Mernissi noted, "The controversy has raged throughout this century between traditionalists, who claim Islam prohibits any changes in the sexes' roles, and the modernists, who claim that Islam allows for the liberation of women, the desegregation of the society and the equality of the sexes" (1975:xv). The opinions of other Muslim scholars and intellectuals can be found somewhere between the two poles. Depending on which scholar is consulted, which country or culture is observed, and which century or decade is represented, the Islamic view on the role of women can be radically different. Why is this? First, today there is no central legal authority in Islam that dispenses and enforces legal uniformity. There are four major Islamic law schools, which sometimes treat issues differently. Even within anyone law school, individual jurists and scholars may interpret laws differently. Advanced Muslim scholars are allowed to reinterpret the evidence of the four sources of law (the Qur'an, the Prophet's acts and sayings, analogy, and the consensus of the scholarly community) in order to arrive at their own, fresh conclusions through the process of independent reasoning (Ar. ijtihad). There are several biographies of the Prophet Muhammad (Ar. sira) and many divergent collections of his reputed sayings (Ar. hadith). Contemporary and local thinking are injected into Islamic law through the principles of the consensus of the region's scholars (Ar. ijma' ) and analogy (Ar. qiyas) ofold laws with new situations. The wide geographical distribution and range of cultures of Islamic societies owes much to the flexibility of its laws and tenets in the face of local culture and belief. Islam is found in such diverse countries as Iran, the Soviet Union, Sudan, Morocco, Zanzibar, Syria, the United States, Great Britain, South Africa, Malaysia, India, France, 2. The term "Kano women" is preferable to "Hausa women of Kano," for although most women in Kano City can speak Hausa, they may not be of strictly Hausa backgrounds. Hausa culture no doubt has a strong influence, but since Kano has been a huge trading emporium for centuries , its culture is blended with elements from North Africa, Mali, the Sahara. Borno, southern Nigeria, and the Sudan. There is also a strong Fulani effect on Kano culture: the Fulani have provided the traditional rulers since 1807...

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