Female Islamic Interpretations on the Air: Fatwas and Religious Guidance by Women Scholars on Arab Satellite Channels

Abstract

Religious programs on various Arab satellite channels have been on the increase during the last decade, a time also of increasing political and social contestation. National as well as satellite television, including al-Jazeera, feature daily or weekly religious programs. Additionally there are also dedicated “religious channels” with a variety of religiously oriented programming. One such channel is the Egyptian Maria Channel, where women wear face-veils, launched in 2012. This channel—and some of the religious programs on other channels featuring women—deals particularly with “religious” matters (‘ibadat): how women should pray and fast or how women should educate children, and so on. However, in some religious programs, male and female scholars participate together, and jointly discuss various issues and issue fatwas on the air. This chapter will investigate some religious programs that have female presenters. It will look at which issues have become “women’s issues” in this new dissemination of religious knowledge, and whether and how “female” fatwas tend to differ from those of male scholars, and some of the implications of this for the nature of the contemporary public sphere in the Arab world.