Fatwa Hotline: "We Have Heard Everything"

The women at the fatwa hotline are attempting to redress a gender imbalance in the religious sphere. Religious life in UAE, as in the rest of the Middle East, is dominated by men. Male imams preach sermons. Religious space is also a male domain: when the call to prayer sounds five times a day (sung by a man), it is men who hurry to the mosque. Women are encouraged to pray at home. And, inevitably, female scholars are rare.