The first female Mufti in the Arab world

Appointment of women caused controversy among Muslims, including in Cairo’s Al-Azhar University that rejects the idea.

United Arab Emirates will appoint the first female muftis in the world next year, local media reported on Tuesday.

Grand Mufti from the United Arab Emirates, Ahmed al-Hadad, said that the candidacy of six women from the Gulf States is currently considered for the training program. The program lasts for several months and it is expected to begin in the first months of the next year, the "National" newspaper reports. Al-Hadad invited all women from the United Arab Emirates in May and encouraged them to apply for the program.

Mufti is the Islamic scholar and expert, legal interpreter of the sharia law (God’s law), who also has a right to proclaim religious guidelines.  

Appointment of women caused controversy among Muslims, including Cairo’s Al-Azhar University that rejected this idea.

“Controversy about women mufti does not necessarily rise at this level, but on the question of whether women should be appointed to a position of state Mufti, which we are not trying to do.” said Al-Hadad. “The Emirates women already work as legal advisors to mufti, but only for women's issues.”

In February of last year Egyptian woman was allowed to issue birth certificates, which was unprecedented in the Islamic world.  United Arab Emirates followed this policy in November of the same year.