474 Annabelle Böttcher
her. Since she shares responsibilities with her husband, she is the only
one who has an overview of his time schedule, the contacts, finances,
etc. This tight grip on information and decision-making helps her
defend her position in this male-dominated environment. Neverthe-
less, there are limitations to such an endeavour. For instance, Umm
ʿAbd Allāh expressed her disappointment that she could not assume
her husband’s position as a preacher in the mosque.^48 While her hus-
band calls himself a Shaykh even though he lacks the academic cre-
dentials, Umm ʿAbd Allāh behaves very modestly. She does not claim
any other title than that of the mother of her son ʿAbd Allāh. This is
a frequent characteristic of female Muslim students and scholars all
over the Islamic world.^49
Umm ʿAbd Allāh is still at the beginning of her scholarly career.
Since there are not enough female Salafis to get together for a teaching
lesson, Umm ʿAbd Allāh has resorted to virtual teaching in the Inter-
net.^50 She regularly “meets” with about 20 German-speaking Salafi-
oriented ladies in “Paltalk” for e-learning lessons. Access is restricted
to females, who have to authenticate themselves with voicesamples in
order to get access to this study group. This oral approach corresponds
to what Gary R. Bunt called “voiced Islam”.^51 Umm ʿAbd Allāh also
regularly sends out homework to her students. Her course materials
are available on a webpage that she has meticulously developed over
time.^52 Interestingly, this virtual space reflects the same features as the
real space, where strict gender segregation is imposed. In spite of her
efforts, Umm ʿAbd Allāh is still in the early stages of this discovery
process and far from being able to challenge on her own the sound-
ness of these Prophetic traditions or other sources. She claims that her
48 Informal conversation with Umm ʿAbd Allāh on May 29, 2004 in al-Nūr
Mosque in Berlin.
49 For modesty in female religious authority in Sufism, see Böttcher, Annabelle:
Portraits of Kurdish Women in Contemporary Sufism, in: Shahrzad Mojab
(ed.): Women of a Non-State Nation. The Kurds, Costa Mesa 2001, pp. 195–208,
here pp. 197–203; Böttcher, Annabelle: Religious Authority in Transnational
Sufi Networks, in: Gudrun Krämer and Sabine Schmidtke (eds.): Speaking
for Islam. Religious Authorities in Muslim Societies, Leiden and Boston 2006,
pp. 241–268, here pp. 261–263.
50 Böttcher, Vielfältige islamische Traditionen, p. 5.
51 Bunt, Gary R.: Virtually Islamic. Computer-mediated Communication and
Cyber Islamic Environments, Cardiff 2000, p. 9.
52 Informal conversation with Umm ʿAbd Allāh on May 29, 2004 in al-Nūr
Mosque in Berlin.
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