The Birth of the Ustazah

Abstract Twentieth-century Southeast Asia saw the emergence of ustazah —female Islamic teachers—as certified professionals with a distinctly public presence and considerable social status. Their authority was contingent on Muslim women’s social mobility and political emancipation as much as their newly acquired access to formal Islamic education. Analysing the remarkable life and memoir of Ustazah Khaironnisah binti Mohd Ali (1933–2017), the first headmistress of the women’s section of the prestigious al-Mashoor Islamic school in Penang, Malay(si)a, this article demonstrates that women’s Islamic authority simultaneously built on and clashed with contemporary notions of success and urban professionalism. Debunking the stereotypical image of the ustazah as a figure whose role was limited to religious guidance and pastoral care in local communities and private spaces and showing how women’s religious authority straddled institutionalized Islam and political activism, it reveals the salience in the twentieth century of newly emerging and competing Muslim femininities in Malaysia and beyond.