WUNRN
Via Women's Feature Service
Rabeya Mueller,
one of ZIF (Cologne, Germany, Islamic Women's Centre for Research &
Encouragement)founders. The Centre combines religious
theory with a help hotline and counselling center.(Credit: Naomi Kresge)
By Naomi Kresge
Becker, 70, a German
who converted to Islam 45 years ago, has helped women with crises of sexuality,
faith and abusive relationships. In March 2008 she had offered to officiate at
a client's divorce, a shocking step for a woman. The client's husband balked at
Becker's involvement, but for his wife it was a breakthrough to realise she
could end her marriage.
"So they went to
a mosque around the corner, and the woman cited the Qur’an and said she didn't
want the marriage," Becker recalls. "The imam said, 'Yes, the female
theologian was right, and I'll give you a divorce.'"
Becker's centre, ZIF
- Zentrum fur Islamische Frauenforschung, or the Islamic Women's Centre for
Research and Encouragement - combines religious theory with a help hotline and
counselling. It is the only Muslim theology centre run by women in
Organisers say the
A 2007 European Union
report listed the two
Among immigrant
women's groups, ZIF stands out for its focus on religion, traditionally
dominated by men with paid teaching and study positions in
On the ZIF staff are
a couple of full time women workers as well as some volunteers. Because of
security concerns, the group does not publish its address. Instead it operates
an anonymous telephone help hotline. Five volunteers - two educators, a doctor,
a sociologist and a theologian - offer face-to-face counselling by appointment.
Muslim women know
they can ask questions they can't ask elsewhere, such as doubts they have about
their faith or sexual orientation, Mueller said. Domestic violence is another common
problem. "We try to explain what possibilities the Qur’an offers,"
Mueller added, but counsellors let clients come to their own conclusions about
what to do.
Often clients decide
to return to abusive relationships, she said.
Nonetheless,
according to ZIF counsellors, Muslim women who are victims of abuse are more
likely to respond to counseling grounded in their faith.
The centre drew
attention in 2007 when a high-profile German divorce case drew its theological
work into the limelight. A German judge in
ZIF's theologians had
published a book in 2005 arguing that verses of the Qur’an sometimes used to
justify striking women had been incorrectly translated. And, before the
Frankfurt case, some male-led Muslim groups in
Suddenly, amid
widespread outrage - the judge was later removed from the case - ZIF saw male
Muslim thinkers in
Though the women who
head the group's religious studies workshops hold theology degrees, anyone is
welcome to join. ZIF counsellors' advice is often grounded in the theology
circle's work, said Becker.
Most of ZIF's clients
are children of immigrants, Becker added. They're more likely to seek out
counselling than their mothers and more likely than their daughters to seek it
from a culturally sensitive source. "To put yourself forward, demand your
rights, is still a little strange for some Muslim women here," Becker
said. "They're afraid of looking radical or inadequate."
(Naomi Kresge is a reporter and Fulbright Journalism Fellow based in