Word: genderism
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...prayer leader is Amina Wadud, an Islamic scholar at Virginia Commonwealth University, and the organizers who invited her claim that she is the first woman to have presided over a mixed-gender prayer service in public since Islam's earliest days. The event was held in a cavernous hall on the grounds of New York City's Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine because no major mosque would play host to it. "There are still men who believe women are not allowed to be leaders. They're bullies," says organizer Asra Nomani, author of the new book Standing Alone...
While worldwide many Muslim women embrace the strict gender divisions in traditional Islam, in the U.S. a movement is afoot to meld the Western view of gender equality with Muslim teachings. "The newer generation wants to emerge with its own American Muslim identity," says Daisy Khan, director of the American Sufi Muslim Association. Scholars can cite no clear Koranic ban on female leaders, and Wadud thinks women's inequality is not a tenet of the faith but a mark of misguided tradition. "That's where most of the rules came along to say women cannot do things," she says...
...last Friday, that space did not include the pulpit. Experts say women have led only other women in prayer--and many Muslims are against change. Opponents flooded Wadud and the organizers with angry calls and e-mail. Outside the cathedral, a dozen protesters held signs that said, MIXED-GENDER PRAYER TODAY, HELLFIRE TOMORROW. One veiled woman voiced an argument common among conservative Muslims everywhere: Restrictions on women are for their protection--and are "signs of respect." Inside the hall, police ejected a man after he burst in, shouting "God save your souls!" The organizers "should be stoned," he said later...
Your story on women and the sciences was a wake-up call to anyone who is hanging on to a one-size-fits-all view of teaching math and scientific subjects. Research confirms what perceptive teachers know: different people (whether they differ by gender, age or simply nature's diversity) learn at different times and in different ways. We cannot cling to a naive assumption that most students will learn in the same way if they just apply themselves. We know how to teach mathematics for all students--by using not just symbols but strategies that target visual and perceptive...
...question is not whether women lack an innate ability to succeed and excel in science (that is simply not the case) but whether there are gender-based, neuronal differences in how males and females perceive input, frame scenarios and derive conclusions. If male and female scientists arrive at identical conclusions via similar yet subtly different pathways, it suggests that together we may reach a far greater understanding of any particular problem than through any single-gender effort. In the pursuit of scientific truth, the wealth of knowledge gained through diverse perspectives truly elevates us. I sincerely hope...