Knowledge, empowerment and religious authority among pious muslim women in France and Germany

I n both France and Germany, as probably elsewhere in Europe throughout the 1980s and 90s, a sizable number of mosques and Muslim organizations opened their doors to women and started to provide prayers rooms, religious instruction, 1 and other services exclusively for female believers. In both countries the number of women benefiting from these services, in particular from religious instruction, has clearly reached that of male Muslims. 2