Women in Higher Religious Education in the Context of Religion, Education and Modernisation

In addition to the transformative impact of learning and instruction on individuals and society, there is also the possibility that cultural, social, and political structures may reshape the educational system. Religious education, as a component of this system, is one of the area’s most susceptible to such influence. Transformations in the field of religious instruction are clearly observable in the lands we inhabit. In the period following the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, religious instruction and women’s learning experiences were addressed as two separate topics. Given the fact that the history of women’s educational participation has followed a distinct developmental trajectory from that of men, this topic could benefit from further discussion and clarification, and its boundaries should be more clearly defined. Individuals who successfully complete higher religious studies are qualified to work as formal and informal religious educators. The fact that graduates of these institutions are employed in formal religious teaching contexts, together with the recent growth in the number of women opting for advanced religious studies, highlights the importance of this topic. Although various studies have addressed religious education and women’s education separately, the sources accessed for this study do not examine women’s learning experiences in the context of higher religious education as a distinct and chronological analytical framework; this constitutes the originality of the present research. In line with this gap, the aim of the study is to describe the learning processes of women in the context of higher religious studies. Accordingly, the fundamental problem of this research is to demonstrate how women’s learning experiences in higher religious education have developed within the historical context and how this change can be interpreted in terms of the relationship between religious education and modernisation. The description has been carried out in chronological order. Here, religious instruction refers to the Islamic faith. The research method employed was qualitative document analysis. This study examines the historical process and reveals how women’s learning experiences have transformed since the emergence of Islam. It is understood that women with similar religious beliefs experienced these educational processes in different ways in different regions. In this context, it is seen that the institutional changes that emerged in the Ottoman Empire during the Tanzimat period had a structure that transformed and differentiated educational institutions. Women’s adaptation to the education system and the qualitative developments in women’s education also took place during this period. With the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, the modernisation efforts that began during the Tanzimat period showed rapid development. The increased visibility of women in higher religious studies led to social and institutional shifts. The study addresses this transformation within the broader framework of religious instruction and modernisation.