Appel à contribution: Gendering Faith

The research project Gendering Faith: Palestinian Women and the Islamic Revival issues a call for papers from contributors from the following countries: Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria, or Yemen.

While focusing on Palestinian women the project also consists of a comparative component concerned with investigating patterns of religiosity among Muslim women in the Arab world at large. To this end, a research network has been established. In order to complement the research network we issue a call for abstracts (of approximately 250 words) from contributors from Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria or Yemen. The selected researcher commits her/himself to produce an article to be submitted for publication in a special edition of a journal. S/he also commits her/himself to participate in a workshop (Istanbul March‐April 2013) to discuss the first draft of the paper and to present the research at an international conference (not yet decided) in the fall of 2013. An honorarium of US$3,000 will be offered and travel expenses incurred in relation with workshop and conference attendance will be covered. The project examines the nature and causes of the increasing public religiosity of Muslim women in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). Given the context of occupation and resistance, research on Islamism in the OPT has focused extensively on the political and militant aspects of the Islamic Revival, in particular on Hamas. In these studies, women are either depicted as auxiliaries or as victims of imposed dress codes and strict gender segregation. Such studies do not serve as a fruitful point of departure to understand the agency and self‐interest of Palestinian women who join or support Islamic groups. The studies also overlook other ways in which the Islamic Revival manifests itself among women – as groups and networks of socio‐religious non‐profit organisations that engage in proselytisation and educational and charitable work, often referred to as “piety groups”. To what extent does women’s engagement reflect strategies or processes of empowerment in a situation where daily life is shaped not only by patriarchal power structures but also deep instabilities and recurring crises?

The project is developed by Muwatin – the Palestinian Institute for the Study of Democracy and the Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI), funded by the Research Council of Norway. Project leader is Anne Sofie Roald, professor in Religious Studies at Malmö University, Sweden and senior researcher at CMI. Please submit abstracts to hilde.kjostvedt@cmi.no