RELLENO DE ZANJA CON TIERRA CERNIDA

In this dissertation I utilize three different theoretical approaches, including Islamic feminist thought, literature on post-socialist and post-war development (with particular attention to NGOs) and finally, religious revitalizations or reislamization with special focus on the

anthropology of conversion. With the increased Islamic revivalist movement throughout the world, an examination of the roles that Islam plays in peoples’ lives, and even more so in the lives of women is appropriate (Karam 1998: 9; Karčić 2010a: 151; Karčić 2010b: 523). A number of Islamic scholars have observed that historically, Western scholars have

characterized Muslim women as passive and subjugated by men (Afshar 1984; Mahmood 2004; Mernissi 1975; Nageeb 2004; Neuburger 2004; Pollitt 2009; Saktanber 2002; Sharify-

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Funk 2008; Wadud 2006; Weber 2009). Abu-Rabia argues that Western aversion to Muslim women:

…goes back to colonial times when Western imperialists saw the veil as a symbol of inferiority, and believed their mission was to civilize the primitive and oppressed people of the colonies from South Asia to North America. [Abu-Rabia 2006: 92]

Roksana Bahramitash claims that the western antipathy for Muslim women is an outcome of Feminist Orientalism defined by three primary characteristics, including:

First, it assumes a binary opposition between the West and the Orient: The Occident is progressive and the best place for women, while the Muslim Orient is backward, uncivilized, and the worst place for women. The second characteristic of feminist Orientalism is that it regards Oriental women only as victims and not as agents of social transformation; thus it is blind to the ways in which women in the East resist and empower themselves.

Therefore, Muslim women need saviors, i.e., their Western sisters, as in the case of Afghan women, who, always being covered, are seen as unable to become agents of their own liberation. The third aspect of feminist Orientalism assumes that all societies in the Orient are the same and all Muslim women there live under the same conditions. [Bahramitash 2005: 222]

Scholarship on Muslim women is characterized by politics of representation. According to Saba Mahmood (2001) western scholars and non-scholars have used political agendas not only to promote negative images of Muslim women, but as a way of justifying western superiority. In particular, western feminist tradition has applied western paradigms to Muslim women’s experiences. According to Mahmood,

If there is one thing that the feminist tradition has made clear, it is that questions of politics must be pursued at the level of the architecture of the self, the processes (social and technical) through which its constituent elements (instincts, desires, emotions, memory) are identified and given coherence. My argument simply is that in order for us to be able to judge, in a morally and politically informed way, even those practices we consider objectionable, it is important to take into consideration the desires, motivations, commitments, and aspirations of the people to whom these

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practices are important. Thus, in order to explore the kinds of injury specific to women located in particular historical and cultural situations, it is not enough simply to point, for example, that a tradition of female piety or modesty serves to give legitimacy to women's subordination. Rather it is only by exploring these traditions in relation to the practical engagements and forms of life in which they are embedded that we can come to understand the significance of that subordination to the women who embody it. [Mahmood 2001: 224-225]

The world Muslim population is expected to grow at twice the rate of non-Muslim population including a sizeable increase in Europe and United States over the next two decades (Lugo, et al. 2009). As women make up over half of the Muslim population, their role is likely to change, and their participation will most likely increase. In particular, Muslim women who have experienced social and cultural changes, most notably those associated with feminism, and who are educated and enjoy relatively high socio-economic background, will begin to play an important role in global Islamic experience. Therefore in order to understand what it means to be a Muslim woman in present-day Bosnia, I must address the question of why Islam (as a lifestyle) appeals at least to some women across the socio-economic and educational spectrum, while other sociologically similar Muslim women remain committed to preservation of secular tradition? The primary thread that runs

through my dissertation is that of agency vs. passivity. In the context of my research I use Azam Torab’s definition of agency which “implies that individuals are not predetermined by structure but have the capacity to act effectively on their lives” (Torab 1996: 23). Passivity on the other hand is understood as the opposite of that and refers to those individuals who do not have the capacity to affect their own lives in the direction that is most beneficial to them. My underlying interest in having a discussion of agency and passivity is in helping understand why a religion that appears, and to a degree is, authoritarian and patriarchal

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appeals to women. In order to really understand how Muslim women enact agency and passivity I focus on belief and practice and how each of these concepts plays out in these women’s lives. Moreover, looking at belief and practice helps me understand how agency and passivity can be attained or lost. The discussion of agency is about how Muslim women are carving out a space for themselves, the extent of the autonomy they have over their own lives, and the extent to which these experiences allow or take away their agency.

Finally, I use three theoretical approaches to analyze and examine agency and passivity, including: Islamic feminist scholarship, studies of NGOs and small faith-based groups, and finally, reislamization including a specific focus on anthropology of conversion. My primary aim in using these scholarly works is to show that despite the negative

characterizations of Islam, its strict gender roles and seeming anti-women stance, Islam can be empowering to women. In doing this I demonstrate some of the reasons for the success of reislamization among my informants.