Islamic feminism more widespread in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Usually, it tends to be Muslim men who go to pray on Fridays in the mosques of Bosnia and Herzegovina. As is customary in Islam, women are not required to go to the mosque to pray on the holiest day of the week. However, more and more, devout Muslim women in the Western Balkan country want to attend the mosque, too.

In the secular state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, men and women are equal before the law. In recent decades, the state has made significant efforts to eliminate gender-based discrimination and protect women from violence. However, in certain religious communities, whether these are Muslim, Orthodox or Catholic, social and cultural norms continue to stand in the way of equality.

Since the end of the Bosnian War (1992–1995), religion has played a greater role in all of the country's communities, particularly amid Muslim Bosniaks, Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats. In some families, very conservative notions of gender roles prevail, according to which women are expected first and foremost to be mothers and to care for the family.

"Muslim feminists are fighting for women's rights within an Islamic framework," Bosnian sociologist Dermana Kuric from the University of Sarajevo told DW. She said that they were doing this by taking an active role in society without openly challenging misogynistic interpretations of the Quran.

She added that university educated Muslim women were consciously engaging with traditional Islamic scholarship, which has sought to confine women to a subordinate role in the family and the wider community. "Muslim feminists are concerned with gender relations based on autonomy and individual responsibility — as opposed to control or dominance," Kuric said.

Bosniaks part of broader Muslim feminist movement

Bosnian Muslim feminists are part of a broader movement that has been gaining influence in the Islamic world since the 1980s. They interpret the Quran from a female perspective and see it as a source of empowerment in their struggle for greater rights. With her translation of the groundbreaking book by Moroccan sociologist and pioneer of Islamic feminism Fatima Mernissi (1940 – 2015) "The Forgotten Queens of Islam," gender studies scholar Zilka Spahic-Siljak from the University of Sarajevo has made a significant contribution to raising awareness of the ideas of Islamic feminism in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"Like other religions, Islam has been shaped by male scholars' interpretations of its sacred texts, based on their own experiences," Spahic-Siljak told DW. "Women's experiences are not represented, with a few exceptions. But justice is a central principle in the Quran, and there can be no justice if women are not treated as equals."

In 2021, the academic founded the Feminism and Religion Online School with the Catholic nun Jadranka Rebeka Anic to offer courses into religion and feminism to interested students.

Quran should not be used to justify domestic violence

While in 2023, Spahic-Siljak took part in campaign against domestic violence, criticizing Muslim scholars who legitimized violence by husbands against their wives by citing Surah an-Nisa 4:34, a chapter of the Quran. The influential imam Senaid Zajimovic took up her arguments and expressed an openness to a new interpretation of the Surah. He issued a theological statement, emphasizing that the Quran must not be used to justify male dominance and violence against women.

"Over the past few decades, we have seen Muslim women carving out more space for themselves within the Muslim community," said Kuric. These may be small steps, she said, but progress is being made. For example, with regard to women attending Friday prayers at mosque: "Their participation was never formally prohibited; it was simply a result of a male-dominated culture that they were not there."

In April 2026, the Islamic Community's council for religious affairs in the city of Zenica, which is situated around 70 kilometers (about 43 miles) north of the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, encouraged women to attend Friday prayers at all mosques in the district. Two mosques in Sarajevo also explicitly welcome women, who pray in a separate room from men or on a balcony.

The situation is also changing in the academic world. Though there are still no female professors of theology in the country's departments of Islamic theology, there are a number of female research assistants, and it is hoped that they will eventually become professors.

No female imams in Bosnia and Herzegovina yet 

There are also still no female imams, even if these now exist in other countries, including, for example, in France and the US, where Amina Wadud caused a worldwide sensation when she led Friday prayers at a mixed congregation in the city of New York in 2005.

Islamic institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina today are more or less the same as those that were established under Austro-Hungarian rule (1878–1918). After the Habsburg authorities occupied Bosnia, they set up an organized religious structure for Muslims that was based on the model of Christian churches, the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina. They also introduced the office or Reisu-l-ulema, or Grand Mufti, who remains the supreme representative of Bosnian Muslims.

"It is still difficult for women to attain positions of power and influence within the Muslim community," the political scientist Djevada Garic told DW. "For example, we have many female teachers at Islamic schools, but no women in the Riyaset, the highest decision-making body, or on the Council of Muftis. Only 11 of 87 representatives in the Islamic Community's parliament are women." Garic herself, as the Islamic Community's advisor for international relations, was one of the first women to hold a leadership position.

Kuric wants to concentrate on the positive aspects. Today, she noted, there are more women with the confidence to run for office, for example in the Islamic Community's parliament. In addition, she pointed out, the current Grand Mufti, Husein Kavazovic, has established a dedicated department for the advancement of women. Female Islamic theologians now have career prospects and the opportunity to familiarize themselves with Islamic institutions and their structures.

"There is no resistance from Muslim men against the advancement of women in the sense that they would say 'You are not allowed to hold leadership positions,'" Kuric said, but there is still much to be done she admitted. "What I find lacking is a clear institutional strategy from the Islamic Community to seriously advance women as believers and as theologians and to better integrate them."