Seeking Recognition: Women’s Struggle for Full Citizenship in the Community of Religious Worship

Abstract

This chapter addresses the struggle of religiously observant women in the United States to participate in public prayer. It focuses on two small but highly visible religions: Islam and Judaism. Within each group, a few earnestly follow religious law. Among these only a small fraction are feminists—religious devotees who adhere to their respective religious laws and yet aim to fi nd ways to reconcile these laws with principles of inclusion and equal citizenship for men and women. The traditional regulation of public prayer, in both Islam and Judaism, has either excluded women or delegated them to a marginal role