Editing Fatwa (section)

===Social role of fatwas===

As the role of fatwas on strictly legal issues has declined in modern times, there has been a relative increase in the proportion of fatwas dealing with rituals and further expansion in purely religious areas like Quranic exegesis, creed, and Sufism. Modern fatwas also deal with a wide variety of other topics, including insurance, sex-change operations, moon exploration, beer drinking,{{sfn|Messick|2017}} abortion in the case of fatal foetal abnormalities, or males and females sharing workplaces.{{sfn|Ghafour|2016}} Public "fatwa wars" have reflected political controversies in the Muslim world, from anti-colonial struggles to the [[Gulf War]] of the 1990s, when muftis in some countries issued fatwas supporting collaboration with the US-led coalition, while muftis from other countries endorsed the Iraqi call for jihad against the US and its collaborators.{{sfn|Gräf|2017}}{{sfn|Messick|2017}} In the private sphere, some muftis have begun to resemble social workers, giving advice on various personal issues encountered in everyday life.{{sfn|Messick|2017}}

The social profile of the fatwa petitioner has also undergone considerable changes. Owing to the rise of universal education, those who solicit fatwas have become increasingly educated, which has transformed the traditional mufti–mustafti relationship based on restricted literacy. The questioner is now also increasingly likely to be female, and in the modern world, Muslim women tend to address muftis directly rather than conveying their query through a male relative as in the past. Since women now represent a significant proportion of students studying Islamic law and qualifying as muftiyas, their prominence in its interpretation is likely to rise.{{sfn|Messick|2017}}{{sfn|Ghafour|2016}} A fatwa hotline in the [[United Arab Emirates]] provides access to either male or female muftis, allowing women to request fatwas from female Islamic legal scholars.{{sfn|Ghafour|2016}}

The vast amount of fatwas produced in the modern world attests to the importance of Islamic authenticity to many Muslims. However, there is little research available to indicate to what extent Muslims acknowledge the authority of various fatwas and heed their rulings in real life. Rather than reflecting the actual conduct or opinions of Muslims, these fatwas may instead represent a collection of opinions on what Muslims "ought to think".{{sfn|Berger|2014}}