Religious Practices of Women in Muslim Communities of the North Caucasus: History and Modernity
The article examines the religious practices of women in the Muslim communities of the North Caucasus, the attitude of the clergy and society towards them. The relevance of the topic is due to the new vector of women's activity - the religious sphere. In recent decades, this topic has become increasingly controversial. In the context of the Islamization of the society, informal communities play a significant role - the brotherhood of Sufis, new Salafi communities, ambiguously interpreting the possibility of women's participation in the religious sphere. Muslim law schools have their own system of views on the forms of women's participation in the sphere of religion. Despite the absence of gender differences in the performance of ritual duties, certain restrictions in the religious sphere for women in Muslim communities are still practiced. The article examines the public views of the Islamic feminists of Western and Muslim countries on the problem under study. It is shown that modern feminism does not limit its activities to the struggle for the economic and political rights of women. The supporters of the Islamic feminism, challenging conservatives, in practice try to prove the equality of women in this matter. Traditional gender boundaries, which have defined the space of women's activity for centuries, are undergoing transformation. On the basis of the comparative historical method, the forms of religious practices of women in the Muslim communities of the North Caucasus are considered. The use of comparative analysis makes it possible to draw an analogy with the communities of the Middle Volga region and the countries of the West.