Prayer leadership, imams and women: defining the contexts and setting the issues. Prayer and women: purity and leadership. The imam as prayer leader
Congregational prayers: women leading women. Setting the narrative context: Umm Salama. Hadiths on female prayer leadership and Sunni jurisprudence. Shi'i positions on female imama of women: Identity, shared issues and esoteric interpretations
Congregational prayers: women leading men. Setting the context. Women as prayer leaders of men: Umm Waraqa and Ghazala. Legal arguments on women leading men in prayer. Ibn al-'Arabi and female imama
Present debates and practices. Some current cases of women imams of women. Some current cases of women imams of mixed congregations. Contemporary arguments and debates on female imams of men. Uses of the past in contemporary debates