An internationally known scholar on the subjects of women and Islam and on the influences of Islam in America, Amina Wadud gives a talk titled "The States of Muslim Women's Struggles for Gender Justice" at 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 2, in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Ave., Bates College.

The public is invited to the presentation, sponsored by the Multicultural Center and the Mushahada Association, free of charge. For more information, contact 207-786-8376.

Professor of Islamic Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, Wadud is the author of Qur'an and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman's Perspective (Oxford University Press, 1993), the first interpretative reading of the Qur'an by a woman, and the forthcoming Inside Gender Jihad (Oneworld Publications). 

Fluent in Arabic, she frequently offers international television commentary about her areas of expertise. Wadud sparked controversy in New York City last spring when she became one of the first women to lead Muslim prayers in the United States.