Mobilizing Piety

Abstract

In the post 9/11 world, Islam and feminism are widely viewed as incompatible. Sociologist Rachel Rinaldo’s ethnography of Muslim and secular women activists in Jakarta, Indonesia highlights the diverse ways they engage with Islam and feminism and use them in their activism and their daily lives. Mobilizing Piety compares different forms of women’s activism in a globalizing metropolis. Examining a feminist NGO, Muslim women’s organizations, and women in a Muslim political party, Rinaldo demonstrates that the Islamic revival and democratization in Indonesia are helping to shape new kinds of agency for women activists, some of whom are influenced by both Islam and feminism. Rinaldo shows how these new kinds of agency have emerged from the increasing interactions between the fields of Islamic and gender politics in Indonesian public life since the 1990s. As Islam becomes a primary source of meaning in the Indonesian public sphere, Rinaldo shows how some women activists mobilize Islam to argue for women’s empowerment and equality, while others use Islam to advocate a more Islamic nation. Women activists in Indonesia are transforming global discourses of Islam and feminism, embodying new forms of agency and identity, and creating social change. Mobilizing Piety presents a new conceptual framework for studying religion and politics, showing how an examination of interpretation allows for a more nuanced understanding of how religion can underpin very different visions for the future.