Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List

Full text release has been delayed at the author's request until May 13, 2025

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Agency Between Narratives: Women, Faith, and Sociability in Irangeles

Rezaeisahraei, Afsaneh
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1587660771187606

Abstract Details

2020, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Comparative Studies.
The concept of agency in Muslim women's lives is often approached in binary terms. On one side is the global liberatory paradigm that equates agency with resistance to restrictions and views it as incompatible with Islam. On the opposite side is the Islamic feminist argument that locates agency in women's deliberate acts of ethical self-formation and working within religious structures. Both these approaches come with certain limitations. First, they overlook the large group of "ordinary Muslim" women whose agency is not shaped either in opposition or conscious submission to religion. Second, they measure women's relation to larger structures by relying on a limited understanding of agency as autonomous will enacted through individual actions. To surpass these limitations, I apply a folkloristic approach to the study of Muslim women's social life. I present three ethnographic cases from my 2017-18 fieldwork with Iranian-American Muslim women in Southern California: a popular domestic Shia ritual, several Quran discussion sessions, and a women's charity club engaged in cultural programs. Using these cases and engaging the scholarship in anthropology of Islam, feminist folklore, and vernacular religion, my dissertation explores 1) how agency is formed, dispersed, and negotiated through social actions, shared performances, and sociability practices in everyday lives of Muslim women--rather than tied to individual acts of piety or resistance, and 2) how Muslim women's agency is formed in relation to external and internal sources of power that transcend the presumed force of religion and tradition in their lives. In other words, I argue for rethinking the very terms of the debate with regard to agency, Muslimness, and the assumption of women's unanimity. For example, I show that women who participate in Quranic sessions frequently argue--with different degrees of authority--over the true meaning and application of Quran in their lives as Muslim women in the US. Women also compete to put on the best display of hospitality and distinction when hosting a domestic gathering. Looking at this complexity of relations and multiplicity of agendas shifts the current paradigm in the study of women and Islam, as it allows for defining Muslim women's community around affective and practical accommodations instead of reified notions of individual belief.
Dorothy Noyes (Advisor)
Morgan Liu (Committee Member)
Katherine Borland (Committee Member)
217 p.
Cultural Anthropology; Folklore; Gender; Middle Eastern Studies; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Religion; Womens Studies
agency; sociability; vernacular religion; anthropology of Islam; feminist folklore; ritual; philanthropy; Muslim women; Middle East anthropology; relational agency; relative agency; Islamic agency; Irangeles; Tehrangeles; Iranian-American; Iran

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Rezaeisahraei, A. (2020). Agency Between Narratives: Women, Faith, and Sociability in Irangeles [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1587660771187606

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Rezaeisahraei, Afsaneh. Agency Between Narratives: Women, Faith, and Sociability in Irangeles. 2020. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1587660771187606.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Rezaeisahraei, Afsaneh. "Agency Between Narratives: Women, Faith, and Sociability in Irangeles." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1587660771187606

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1587660771187606
© 2020, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.