Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject by Saba Mahmood

Author:Saba Mahmood [Mahmood, Saba]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Religion, Islam, Rituals & Practice, Social Science, Anthropology, Cultural, Feminism & Feminist Theory, Women's Studies, Islamic Studies
ISBN: 9780691149806
Google: -6amxvMB8K0C
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2011-10-22T16:00:00+00:00

42 It would be a mistake to assume that the Nafi da(iyat are therefore "literalists," because they often take the larger context of the tradition into account. See, for example, the response Hajj a Samira gives to Rabia above .

how these disparate positions constitute part of the same discursive fi d.43 To begin with, note that Hajj a Faiza does not cast doubt upon the validity of the

Q. that describes women as eaura; indeed, since the Q. is attributed to a reliable source, questions regarding its legitimacy cannot be made the grounds for Hajja Faiza's disagreements, given her strict abidance by the terms of the juristic discourse.44 Instead, she criticizes the conclusion that is derived fr this Q. and made the basis for either severely restricting the practice of ikhtilat or prohibiting it. In her arguments, Hajja Faiza stresses the criteria that her middle.. to upper..middle.- lass audience must bear in mind, and the measures they must take, when negotiating the contradictory demands of their lifestyles ( including women's pursuit of profe.ssional careers, which brings them considerable public exposure) and the requisites of a virtuous life. Far more signifi ntly, however, Hajja Faiza shares with the Nafi daeiyat two interrelated assumptions that are at the core of the debate about ikhtilat in the daewa circles. One is the principle, unanimously upheld by Muslim ju.. rists, that interactions between women and men who are unrelated by imme.. diate kin ties ( ghair mal). rim) are a potential source of unvirtuous conduct and illicit relationships.45 While women and men are both urged to discipline their sight, behavior, and thoughts so as to prevent the stirring of illicit sexual passions (see Quranic verse 30 of Sii al.-Niir), it is women who bear the pri.. mary responsibility for maintaining the sanctity of relations between the sexes. This is because the j uristic Islamic tradition assumes that women are the objects of sexual desire and men the desiring subjects, an assumption that has come to justify the injunction that women should "hide their charms" when in public so as not to excite the libidinal energies of men who are not their immediate kin. It is noteworthy that Islam, unlike a number of other or.. thodox religious traditions ( for example, strands of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity), does not place a high premium on the practice of sexual absti.. nence and regards the pursuit of sexual pleasure (within the bounds of a mar..

ital relationship) a necessary virtue both for women and men. · In this moral worldview, illicit sexual relationships are understood to create social discord and sedition (fitna in a community, and are regarded as signs of its moral de..

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