The Religious/Secular Binary in Women's Islamic Activism

Abstract

Analysis of religious activism and movements are often distorted by the reification of the concept of religion. Action inspired by religious goals is therefore bracketed and studied in isolation from the contexts of the daily lives of individuals who produce it. This chapter argues that scholarship contending with issues of faith and piety and with individuals who experience them must engage with assumptions about religion (and secularism) fully and critically. The conceptual investment in the binary view of religion and secularism is one impediment to fully understanding subjects who engage in religious activism. This is especially important when dealing with women-led religious activism because normative liberal androcentric ideologies often dismiss women as falsely conscious subjects. A critical epistemology that not only historizes religion and secularism within the very contexts being observed but in the discourses and daily routines of those who engage in religious movements is necessary for a deeper understanding of women’s issues in Muslim-majority countries and Islamic movements today.