Muslim women are reviving forgotten tradition of Quran recitation

#FemaleReciters movement aims to revive the sacred practice of female public Quran recitation, forgotten in the West.

Learning to become a qari (or qari’ah for females), a skilled reciter of the Quran, the holy book for Muslims, is not easy. It takes years or even decades of practice and discipline to master proper recitation and pronunciation known as tajweed. For Madinah Javed, 25, a law graduate and activist from Glasgow, Scotland, her journey to become a qari’ah began from a young age when her mother would attend tajweed classes while they were living in Qatar. As a toddler, she would sit in her classes and inadvertently absorb what she was hearing. Some two decades of training later, the St Mary’s Cathedral in Glasgow invited Javed in 2017 to recite a part of the Quran and share the story of Mary and Jesus as a guest for their Christian service.