This IQAS issue relates to the relationship between religious knowledge and women’s professionalisation. It links empirical observations of applied religious knowledge with the conceptualisation of professionalisation, examined through case studies from Southeast, South and Central Asia. The lens it looks through is intentionally gender-sensitive, exploring how Muslim women in Asia actively and creatively participate in the production and dissemination of religious knowledge and the formation of new knowledge societies through participation in social activism and the global economy on multiple scales. 

The authors are members and partners of a research initiative that seeks to explore women’s pathways to professionalisation in Muslim Asia. In the course of three years, substantial findings have come to light that lead the authors of this issue to suggest a more flexible understanding of the concept of “profession” and the notion of “religious knowledge”.

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Other issues can be found on the website of IQAS.

This second part of the IQAS special issue on "Knowledge on the Move" extends the critical exploration of knowledge circulation in Asia. Building on the foundations laid in Part I, which underscored the pivotal role of translation in facilitating knowledge movement, Part II delves into diverse contexts across Asia. The first article investigates ethnic activism in Nepal, revealing how a language of ethnicity evolved through translation acts, connecting local, national, and global audiences. The second article explores the socio-cultural unity of the Rang people across the Nepal-India border, navigating differing minority policies and ethnonyms. The third article examines Indian immigrants' agency in shaping interregional mobility and connectivity, focusing on protests in North America and the Philippines in the early 20th century. Finally, the fourth article explores the role of photojournalism in interwar Japan, specifically in women's magazines, shaping an imagined geography of a multicultural Japanese empire. Collectively, these articles offer rich insights into the complexities of knowledge movement, highlighting its transformative potential in diverse Asian contexts.

Find the new issue here.