Textual and Ritual Command: Muslim Women as Keepers and Transmitters of Interpretive Domains in Contemporary Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

Religious leadership is always based on authority and legitimacy, and it differs from other forms of leadership as it draws weight from transcendental references and often monopolizes access to interpretation. Women's religious leadership in Bosnia and elsewhere has traditionally been executed in domestic and semi-public spaces. The conventional image of Muslim women's roles was petrified during the war in the Balkans in the 1990s and remains the chief prism through which any public contemporary Islamic activity is regarded. The conditions for Muslim women's religious activism have radically changed during the last twenty years, but for reasons different than in most other parts of the Muslim world. Muslim women's engagement in public religious causes can be discussed from three angles: access, visibility, and mobility. These are the domestic spaces where ritual leadership, informal education, and theological interpretation through genres like oral narratives, hymns, poetry, and sermons or teachings are prevalent. Keywords:Bosnian Muslim women; Herzegovina; informal education; public contemporary; religious activity; ritual leadership; theological interpretation