Islamic female religious authority between agency and governmentality: from the Moroccan model to ‘multicultural’ Europe

This chapter analyses the 2004 reform of the Moroccan Ministry of Endowments and Islamic Affairs, which established official women preachers and experts in Islamic Law. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, I discuss whether these female religious authorities mark a real evolution in the traditional male monopoly of Islamic spaces and discourses. The study also explores some of the challenges that the adoption of a similar model would imply for Europe. With reference to the recent debates about multiculturalism, gender equality, and Islam, I finish with a reflection on the contemporary challenges of the eventual promotion of official Muslim women preachers and scholars in Europe and the changes they might bring to Islam, religious authority, and the gender equality debate.