Pious and Critical: Muslim Women Activists and the Question of Agency

• In Event: 596 - Section on Sex and Gender Paper Session. (Re)Theorizing Gender

Abstract

In recent decades, revitalized religious movements have become significant political actors and prompted renewed concern for the future of women’s rights. Sociology needs a better understanding of the forms of agency that are emerging in a world where modernity is not synonymous with the decline or privatization of religious practice. In particular, what forms of agency are emerging among women in democratizing Muslim contexts? And what does this tell us about women’s agency in religious contexts more generally? This article draws on ethnographic research to show some Muslim women activists in democratizing Indonesia manifest what I call pious critical agency. Pious critical agency means the capacity to engage critically and publicly with religious texts. It is a distinct mode of agency that arises from activists’ position in the increasing overlap between the fields of Islamic and gender politics. While some scholars have argued that pious and feminist subjectivity are inherently at odds, the emergence of pious critical agency in Indonesia demonstrates that religion and feminism can intersect in surprising and unexpected ways. Moreover, it shows that women's agency draws on both secular and religious resources.

Author

• Rachel A. Rinaldo, University of Virginia