Feminisation of Islamic Religious Leadership in a Muslim-Minority Country: An Exploration through Biographical Interviews

The Islamic religious field in Italy, a Muslim minority country, is progressively going through a process of feminisation of religious leadership, which concerns both the so-called “first” generations, the “second” and “third” generations of migration, and finally women who are converted to Islam. The Italian case can be described as an interesting “laboratory” in which women are conquering a significant role for their religious communities, within a limited space that is not fostered by the local political-institutional framework. We are thus facing a significant but scarcely visible transformation in the public space and in the collective imaginary.

In this framework, therefore, biographical interviewing allows dynamics to emerge that are difficult to represent through other social research methods. In fact, it allows the life trajectories of Muslim religious leaders to be traced, who have come to occupy their roles through different personal paths, passing through political “militancy”, involvement in associations, or in the professional practice of cultural mediation. Again, in the personal life stories, the reference to their culture of origin and the role of women in the social and religious spheres appears, as well as the encounter with the various dimensions of life in migration.

The paper therefore presents an analysis of some biographical interviews conducted with women who occupy a position of leadership in the Islamic religious field in Italy. The interviews are carried out as part of a broader research in progress that aims to provide an up-to-date portrait of the Muslim presence in Italy, by studying both the religiosity profile of the Muslim population and the perspective of Islamic organisations and their relations with State policies.