Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject by Saba Mahmood Page A
Authors: Saba Mahmood
Tags: Religión, Social Science, Islam, womens studies, Anthropology, Cultural, Feminism & Feminist Theory, Islamic Studies, Rituals & Practice
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"understanding and translation." In this sense, one can say that the tension between the prescriptive and analytical aspects of the feminist project can be left productively open-that it should not be prema.. turely foreclosed for the sake of "political clarity. " As political theorist Wendy Brown reminds us, to "argue for a separation between intellectual and politi.. cal life is not to detach the two. The point is to cultivate . . . an appreciation of the productive, even agonistic, interlocution made possible between intel..
lectual life and political life when they maintain a dynamic distance and ten.. sion" ( 200 1, 4 3).
If there is a normative political position that underlies this book, it is to urge that we-my readers and myself-embark upon an inquiry in which we do not assume that the political positions we uphold will necessarily be vindi.. cated, or provide the ground for our theoretical analysis, but instead hold open the possibility that we may come to ask of politics a whole series of ques. tions that seemed settled when we fi embarked upon the inquiry.
2
Topography of the Pi ety Movement
O nce a week, in the quiet heat of late aftern one can see a stream of women-either singly or in small groups-making their way up a narrow staircase tucked away on one side of the large Umar mosque complex.1 The mosque is an imposing structure located at one of the busiest intersections of a bustling upper..middle..income neighborhood of Cairo, Muhandiseen. Com.. peting for attention with the relatively somber presence of the mosque is a long avenue of glittering shop fronts, American fast..food restaurants, and large hand..painted billboards advertising the latest Egyptian films and plays. The Umar mosque offers a relief from the opulent and consumerist aura of this thoroughfare, not only in its architectural sobriety, but also in the welfare ser.. vices it provides to a range of poor and lower.. income Egyptians. The women making their way discreetly to the top fl of the mosque are here to attend a
religious lesson (dars; plural: durus ) delivered weekly by a woman preacher/re..
ligious teacher (dltiya; plural: daeiyat) by the name of Hajj a Faiza.2
1 All the names of the mosques, the preachers, and attendees have been changed to preserve confi ntiality.
2 The term hajja (rendered as l)a in Modem Standard Arabic and as l;agg in Egyptian coHo,
quial Arabic) literally means "a woman who has performed the pilgrimage to Mecca ( the h.a, j)," but it is also used in Egyptian colloquial Arabic to respectfu address an older woman. While not all the dit had performed the l). jj, and some were quite young, they were all referred to as
l)agg as a sign of respect. Throughout this book, Arabic honorifi terms (such as hajja, sayyid, and
shaikh as with the proper names they precede, are neither italicized nor have diacritical marks. See my earlier note on transcription.
Hajja Faiza gives lessons in two other mosques, as well as in one of the pri.. vate elite clubs of Cairo. She is well known in mosque circles, both for her scholarly erudition and for her dedication to providing lessons to women since the inception of the mosque movement approximately twenty..fi years ago. Each week between fi and one hundred women sit for two hours in an air..conditioned room listening to Hajja Faiza provide exegetical commentary in colloquial Arabic on selected passages from both the Quran and the l),ad ( the authoritative record of the Prophet's exemplary speech and actions).3 The attendees listen attentively in pin.- rop silence, seated in rows of brown wooden chairs, as Hajja Faiza speaks in gentle and persistent tones from be.. hind a desk on a raised platform.
Some of the attendees are housewives, others are students, and a large num.. ber are working women who stop on their way home from work to attend the weekly lessons. While the majority of women are between the ages of thirty and forty, there are attendees as young as twenty and
lectual life and political life when they maintain a dynamic distance and ten.. sion" ( 200 1, 4 3).
If there is a normative political position that underlies this book, it is to urge that we-my readers and myself-embark upon an inquiry in which we do not assume that the political positions we uphold will necessarily be vindi.. cated, or provide the ground for our theoretical analysis, but instead hold open the possibility that we may come to ask of politics a whole series of ques. tions that seemed settled when we fi embarked upon the inquiry.
2
Topography of the Pi ety Movement
O nce a week, in the quiet heat of late aftern one can see a stream of women-either singly or in small groups-making their way up a narrow staircase tucked away on one side of the large Umar mosque complex.1 The mosque is an imposing structure located at one of the busiest intersections of a bustling upper..middle..income neighborhood of Cairo, Muhandiseen. Com.. peting for attention with the relatively somber presence of the mosque is a long avenue of glittering shop fronts, American fast..food restaurants, and large hand..painted billboards advertising the latest Egyptian films and plays. The Umar mosque offers a relief from the opulent and consumerist aura of this thoroughfare, not only in its architectural sobriety, but also in the welfare ser.. vices it provides to a range of poor and lower.. income Egyptians. The women making their way discreetly to the top fl of the mosque are here to attend a
religious lesson (dars; plural: durus ) delivered weekly by a woman preacher/re..
ligious teacher (dltiya; plural: daeiyat) by the name of Hajj a Faiza.2
1 All the names of the mosques, the preachers, and attendees have been changed to preserve confi ntiality.
2 The term hajja (rendered as l)a in Modem Standard Arabic and as l;agg in Egyptian coHo,
quial Arabic) literally means "a woman who has performed the pilgrimage to Mecca ( the h.a, j)," but it is also used in Egyptian colloquial Arabic to respectfu address an older woman. While not all the dit had performed the l). jj, and some were quite young, they were all referred to as
l)agg as a sign of respect. Throughout this book, Arabic honorifi terms (such as hajja, sayyid, and
shaikh as with the proper names they precede, are neither italicized nor have diacritical marks. See my earlier note on transcription.
Hajja Faiza gives lessons in two other mosques, as well as in one of the pri.. vate elite clubs of Cairo. She is well known in mosque circles, both for her scholarly erudition and for her dedication to providing lessons to women since the inception of the mosque movement approximately twenty..fi years ago. Each week between fi and one hundred women sit for two hours in an air..conditioned room listening to Hajja Faiza provide exegetical commentary in colloquial Arabic on selected passages from both the Quran and the l),ad ( the authoritative record of the Prophet's exemplary speech and actions).3 The attendees listen attentively in pin.- rop silence, seated in rows of brown wooden chairs, as Hajja Faiza speaks in gentle and persistent tones from be.. hind a desk on a raised platform.
Some of the attendees are housewives, others are students, and a large num.. ber are working women who stop on their way home from work to attend the weekly lessons. While the majority of women are between the ages of thirty and forty, there are attendees as young as twenty and
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