Ningxia Had Female Imams in 2003

I've added supplementary information both as commentary and by adding links to the existing text.

Female imam a first for Ningxia
China Daily, 25 August 2003

Jin Meihua, a female imam, preaches in a very small courtyard in the Wunan Mosque in the city of Wuzhong in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

Located in the heart of North China near the border, Ningxia, also called Níngxià Huí Autonomous Region (宁夏回族自治区 Níngxià Huízú Zìzhìqū), is home to about six million inhabitants, of which 20% are of the "minority ethnicity" designated as Huí. The Huí are a Hàn Chinese group who are Muslim; in fact, Islam is often called Huíjiào "The Huí Religion".

The 40-year-old Jin is among the first female imams in the region.

"My wish is to deliver virtue," said Jin.

Born into a religious family, she studied the Koran, the sacred text of Islam, under her father when she was very young. But, as a female, she could not go to mosques like her father. To help more women like herself to have the opportunity to learn the Koran and to pray in mosques, Jin decided to become an imam.

Last year, she passed the exam held by the Ningxia Islamic Association, and became one of eight female imams in Wuzhong. In Ningxia, where one-third of China's Hui minority lives, the number of registered imams is 5000, but only [sic] 30 female ones.

The status of female imams is unique to China.

Enter the Word of Authority now in the form of Hei Fuli, "secretary of the Níngxià Islamic Association":

Religion should develop with the times. The emergence of female imams and mosques serving only women also goes along with the trend of the times.

Mosques serving only women [nüsi -ed.] are playing a more and more important role in the life of local women.

This is the bit what I find interesting: the nüsi, a separate edifice run from head to toe by women for women, with a woman imam in charge:

[Women] go to pray and to study Arabic and the Koran there. Imam Jin has five students, and some 50 women from nearby villages come to hear her preach.

Now Imam Jin herself speaks:

Because of illiteracy, many women here feel frightened by the modern changes and developments in society. What I can do is to help them reject unhealthy thoughts, and to do good things under the influence of the Koran.

"Jin has earned a fine reputation with her sermons," said Ma Wanyun, imam of the Wunan Mosque.

Word. We Westerners are catching up: check out the Progressive Muslim Union's Female Prayer Initiative.