Born 25 September 1952 in Bethesda Maryland, Amina Wadud was raised Methodist by her pastor father before converting to Islam in 1972 while studying at the University of Pennsylvania. She graduated from Penn with her BS before continuing on with her studies with a PhD program at University of Michigan, where she studying Arabic and Islamic Studies. After finishing her Phd, she went on to the American University in Cairo, where she studied tafsir (Quran ic interpretation and commentary) and Quranic studies. Her research specialized in gender and quranic studies, experience which she later used while founding the NGO Sisters in Islam with Zainah Anwar. In addition to her activist work, she also taught Islamic studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, until she retired to Indonesia, where she teaches as a visiting professor at local universities. She is perhaps most famous for the controversy she caused in the early 2000s, when she gave a Friday Khutbah (sermon) and led salat, Friday prayers, for a mixed gender audience at a masjid, acting as an Imam for that congregation. These actions sparked a debate in the Muslim academic community, with some adamantly opposed to her actions, others defending her right to lead prayers but criticizing her doing so for a mixed gender audience, and others applauding her fully and encouraging her to continue. She has continued to lead mixed prayer services and also teaches classes online, which some speculate she has done to avoid protests at her presence.