WMST 222 - Gender and Islam: Religious Authority, Feminisms, and The Muslim Body

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)

(Same as RELI 222) Many pious women and men grapple daily with their religiosity and its sometimes wary relationship with modern life. Islam is often portrayed as both a religion and “way of life” fundamentally incompatible with modernity and since the colonial period Muslim women, in particular, have been the symbolic repository of ideas about “Islam” in general. Muslims’ religiosity is often described in terms of its social backwardness, women’s subordination to patriarchal norms, and “fundamentalist” tendencies. This course seeks to question certain assumptions in feminist and liberal thought about gender and women’s freedom and autonomy. We will examine a variety of issues including the role of religious arguments in framing gender, bodily practices, political and intimate violence, sexualities, and Islamic feminisms. Islam will be treated as a rich body of discourses and practices growing, nurtured, and challenged by women and men, Muslims and non-Muslims. Ms. Leeming.

Prerequisite(s): any 100-level Religion or Women’s Studies course, or permission of the instructor.

Two 75-minute periods.