Pub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.2979/jfemistudreli.39.2.02
Magda Mohamed
Abstract: This article examines how queer Muslim pieties are constructed through sartorial practices, specifically, wearing hijab, and what these pious subjectivities suggest about gender, piety, authority, and identity more broadly in the American Muslim community. In Muslim communities, hijab is imbued with heteronormative assumptions and is often thought about in terms of modesty relating to hetero male desire. Yet people who fall outside heteronormative paradigms also choose to cover, suggesting there are alternative meanings to lift up. Based on interviews with three queer Muslim women in Boston, the author found that through donning hijab, queer Muslim women mark degrees of intimacy and privacy with others, protest and resist normative forces within Muslim and LGBTQ cultures, and secure for themselves a gendered and visible Muslim identity, while simultaneously subverting gender norms. This article shows the creative ways Muslim women have negotiated religious and secular authorities to imagine new, playfully pious possibilities for themselves and the Muslim community.
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Pub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.2979/jfs.2023.a908305
Mulki Al-Sharmani
Islamic Feminist HermeneuticsBetween Scholarship and Lived Realities Mulki Al-Sharmani (bio) One critique leveled at Islamic feminist scholarship is that it is divorced from the realities of lay Muslim women.1 But is it? If I ask a Muslim woman in rural Egypt or in Finland if she has heard of Saʾdiyya Shaikh's tafsīr of praxis or amina wadud's notion of tawḥīd as social praxis, the answer might be no.2 But there is another way to pose the question: Do the questions that Islamic feminist scholars bring to Islamic texts speak to ordinary women? Can we find similarities between the interpretive engagements of these scholars and lay women's pursuits of religious meanings? My answer would be yes. My research since 2013 comprises textual analyses of the works of Islamic feminist scholars, collaborative writings with some of these scholars, and ethnographic research on lay Muslim women in Finland and Egypt who are engaging with the Qurʾan and the interpretive tradition as they live their daily lives. I argue that both Islamic feminist scholars and the lay women I have studied are equally concerned with making sense of the Qurʾan's key theological and ethical teachings and see them as integral to informing Muslim gender norms. Both grapple with the text and appreciate its aesthetics, seeing the latter as part of its overall message of beauty and justice. [End Page 95] Two examples illustrate these connections. In her scholarly writings on Sūrat al-Raḥmān, Omaima Abou-Bakr foregrounds the affective experience of encountering the Qurʾan and shows how central qurʾanic principles such as moral beauty, justice, and harmony are highlighted through the aesthetics of the text and traced back to the Oneness of God who is the source of existence in its multiplicity and diversity. Nadia, a fifty-year-old divorced Egyptian woman, grapples with patriarchal interpretations that justify polygamy, domestic violence, and child marriage. She has not read any Islamic feminist scholarship or engaged in gender activism. She is a Muslim who believes the Qurʾan is divine and normative. I have been conducting life history interviews with Nadia over two years.3 She shares how in the past she read the Qurʾan without tadabbur (reflection), but now she reflects on what she reads. In one of our interviews, she describes her reading practice: "I feel God is telling me about himself. I see the nature around me, and I read the sura [Sūrat al-Raḥmān], and I feel God. I feel God's power and justice. And it is so musical." While Nadia is not using the same conceptual language as Abou-Bakr, she captures the same understanding of qurʾanic ethos and affect. She is also making connections between what she sees and experiences around her (nature) and what she reads in the text. Life's trials such as losing a son to a car accident and an abusive marriage are also a lens through which she engages with the Qurʾan. Like Islamic feminist scholars, Nadia also reads Q 4:34 in light of her knowledge o
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Pub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.2979/jfemistudreli.39.2.08
Halla Attallah
Integrating Disability, Transforming Feminist Qurʾanic Studies Halla Attallah (bio) In her essay "Integrating Disability, Transforming Feminist Theory," Rosemarie Garland-Thomson advocates for a theoretical framework that combines insights from both disability and feminist studies. She maintains that a "feminist disability" lens allows scholars to think beyond sexed differentiations to include other value-laden particularities of the body.1 Garland-Thomson's discussion and her emphasis on a theoretically conscious interdisciplinary approach, I believe, is relevant to the current debates in feminist qurʾanic studies. As Hadia Mubarak rightfully observes, much of the discourse is motivated by the question of whether the Qurʾan is "inherently patriarchal," thereby reducing our scope of analysis to simple binaries. This emphasis is understandable, given the stubbornness of Islamophobic tropes that paint Islam as inherently "anti-women"; perhaps this focus is even necessary when we enter "the court of the sultans" that Celene Ibrahim depicts in this roundtable. Moving forward, however, feminist qurʾanic studies would benefit from a critical engagement with scholarship that is also interested in the ethical issues surrounding the body and the power structures defining it.2 A "feminist disability" lens is one such conversation partner that I believe would benefit our work—whether applying an inter- or intratextual reading. My current research examines infertility in the Qurʾan's annunciation scenarios, which recount the tale of the miraculous birth of a son to nonreproductive [End Page 67] bodies.3 To emphasize God's ability to create, the excerpts reference traits that are both gendered, definitively associated with sexed bodies, and—with Mary's chastity as an exception—disabling, preventing one from participating in the valued institution of establishing a household (bayt). Sarah is an "old woman" (ʿajūz)4 who is "barren" (ʿaqīm);5 Abraham and Zachariah are "old men" (shuyūkh);6 and Mary is not a "whore" (baghiyyā).7 Rereading these texts in the context of gender and disability studies helps illustrate the complexities of qurʾanic bodies. In my reading, these texts both affirm and destabilize binary readings of gender. For instance, the absence of an explicit term for male infertility—unlike the female-based term "barren"—suggests that infertility is a strictly female "disability."8 Just as the "barren wind" (al-rīḥ al-ʿaqīm) eradicates the nonbelieving community of ʿĀd,9 a "barren wife" can terminate lineages, disabling the household (bayt). This reading creates a binary between men and women—and between different groups of women, that is, "barren" and conceiving women or "mothers" (ummahāt).10 However, the addition of a disability lens, including what is referred to as the "stigma model," disrupts these binary views.11 While unnamed, for example, male infertility is recognized by the Qurʾan and in narratively creative ways that hint at the experienc
{"title":"Integrating Disability, Transforming Feminist Qurʾanic Studies","authors":"Halla Attallah","doi":"10.2979/jfemistudreli.39.2.08","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2979/jfemistudreli.39.2.08","url":null,"abstract":"Integrating Disability, Transforming Feminist Qurʾanic Studies Halla Attallah (bio) In her essay \"Integrating Disability, Transforming Feminist Theory,\" Rosemarie Garland-Thomson advocates for a theoretical framework that combines insights from both disability and feminist studies. She maintains that a \"feminist disability\" lens allows scholars to think beyond sexed differentiations to include other value-laden particularities of the body.1 Garland-Thomson's discussion and her emphasis on a theoretically conscious interdisciplinary approach, I believe, is relevant to the current debates in feminist qurʾanic studies. As Hadia Mubarak rightfully observes, much of the discourse is motivated by the question of whether the Qurʾan is \"inherently patriarchal,\" thereby reducing our scope of analysis to simple binaries. This emphasis is understandable, given the stubbornness of Islamophobic tropes that paint Islam as inherently \"anti-women\"; perhaps this focus is even necessary when we enter \"the court of the sultans\" that Celene Ibrahim depicts in this roundtable. Moving forward, however, feminist qurʾanic studies would benefit from a critical engagement with scholarship that is also interested in the ethical issues surrounding the body and the power structures defining it.2 A \"feminist disability\" lens is one such conversation partner that I believe would benefit our work—whether applying an inter- or intratextual reading. My current research examines infertility in the Qurʾan's annunciation scenarios, which recount the tale of the miraculous birth of a son to nonreproductive [End Page 67] bodies.3 To emphasize God's ability to create, the excerpts reference traits that are both gendered, definitively associated with sexed bodies, and—with Mary's chastity as an exception—disabling, preventing one from participating in the valued institution of establishing a household (bayt). Sarah is an \"old woman\" (ʿajūz)4 who is \"barren\" (ʿaqīm);5 Abraham and Zachariah are \"old men\" (shuyūkh);6 and Mary is not a \"whore\" (baghiyyā).7 Rereading these texts in the context of gender and disability studies helps illustrate the complexities of qurʾanic bodies. In my reading, these texts both affirm and destabilize binary readings of gender. For instance, the absence of an explicit term for male infertility—unlike the female-based term \"barren\"—suggests that infertility is a strictly female \"disability.\"8 Just as the \"barren wind\" (al-rīḥ al-ʿaqīm) eradicates the nonbelieving community of ʿĀd,9 a \"barren wife\" can terminate lineages, disabling the household (bayt). This reading creates a binary between men and women—and between different groups of women, that is, \"barren\" and conceiving women or \"mothers\" (ummahāt).10 However, the addition of a disability lens, including what is referred to as the \"stigma model,\" disrupts these binary views.11 While unnamed, for example, male infertility is recognized by the Qurʾan and in narratively creative ways that hint at the experienc","PeriodicalId":44347,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF FEMINIST STUDIES IN RELIGION","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135688282","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.2979/jfemistudreli.39.2.07
Hadia Mubarak
Engaging the Tafsīr TraditionA Springboard into a Bottomless Ocean Hadia Mubarak (bio) Does the Qurʾan chart a new discourse on women and gender—one that upends and subverts patriarchal norms or gender oppression—or does it, on the other hand, entrench patriarchal norms and hierarchies? This has been a persistent question in the scholarship on gender in the Qurʾan, and the answers generated by the past two decades of scholarship are far from conclusive. There have generally been three approaches to this question. One approach is a scripturalist one, which distinguishes between the Qurʾan's portrayal and treatment of women and the exegetical portrayal of women. A few significant works that took this approach are Women, Muslim Society and Islam (1988), by Lamya Faruqi (d. 1986), Women in the Qurʾan, Traditions, and Interpretations (1996), by Barbara Stowasser (d. 2012), and Women and Gender in the Qur'an (2020), by Celene Ibrahim. Stowasser's book was the first significant English-language academic work to be devoted to the subject. Departing from the approach of many scholars to skirt the exegetical tradition in their engagement with the Qurʾan, Stowasser took a deep plunge into this tradition, finding that qurʾanic exegesis and the Qurʾan itself are not always consistent in their portrayal of women. Ibrahim's work, which explores all the major and minor female figures referenced in the Qurʾan, pushes the boundaries of qurʾanic studies through her engagement with the Qurʾan through the lens of "Muslima theology."1 A second approach to this persistent question is to separate the Qurʾan from its exegesis with the specific aim of recovering what authors believe is the [End Page 63] Qurʾan's "anti-patriarchal epistemology" or its egalitarian trajectory.2 This second approach resembles the first; however, it diverges in its a priori conclusion that the Qurʾan is an egalitarian text and in its aim to make a case for the Qurʾan's egalitarian episteme. Scholars who have contributed significant works to a rereading of qurʾanic scripture from a gendered lens are Asma Barlas, amina wadud, Azizah al-Hibri, Riffat Hassan, Abla Hasan, and Asma Lamrabet, among others. The third approach has been a critical reading, one that challenges the subjectivity, "text fundamentalism,"3 and "methodological rigidity"4 of feminist approaches to the Qurʾan. Primarily concerned with philosophical and methodological arguments, scholars working on gender in the Qurʾan who have taken this approach include Kecia Ali, Aysha Hidayatullah, and Ebrahim Moosa. They critique feminist scholars or exegetes for imposing their own contemporary sensibilities upon the Qurʾan, even when the literal meanings of the text appear to contradict their egalitarian aspirations for it. As a way out of the deadlock between the second and third approaches described here, I argue for a fourth approach that more robustly engages with the long history of qurʾanic interpretation. Despite the flourishing of l
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Pub Date : 2023-03-01DOI: 10.2979/jfs.2023.a893192
Gillian M. E. Alban
Abstract: This review of ten articles, books, and chapters on the mythic Medusa and genital display figures illustrates Medusa’s petrifying and apotropaic gaze and her engulfing vulva, or eye blazoning her matrixial force, as her severed head demonstrates her abiding pro-creative, indomitable force. Through a history of women held under scrutiny while feared by patriarchy, with men projecting their own fear of castration onto them, the Medusa figure emerges as stunningly uncastrated, asserting her force and returning her stony gaze in the reflexive action pivotal to this myth. Objectified under the male gaze, her vulva faces the viewer, her inspirational force born through the birth of Pegasus even as she is crushed in rape and death. The mythic Medusa and vulva display women persistently retain their hold on the male unconscious in rising above castigation, asserting their amazing procreative force over life and death, enabled through Medusa’s stunning tale and transfixing gaze.
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Pub Date : 2023-03-01DOI: 10.2979/jfs.2023.a893196
Julie R. Enszer
Miriam Bat Murray, and: Tirza Acknowledges G!D’s Pettiness, and: Miriam from The Diaspora of Alaska Julie R. Enszer (bio) Before my father diedhe woke every morningat 6 a.m. drank coffeedressed and walked outthe door at 6:40 a.m.He walked a mile on the streets ofHoboken to the shulwhere he prayedin the morning minyan When he failed to arriveone Wednesday the rabbiwent to his houseknocked on the doorand when he did not answerthe rabbi peered into the backbedroom window to see himlying dead in the bedhe shared for sixtyyears with my mother I flew home three flightstwo connections from Anchorageto sit on low hard stools for my fatherthen extended my trip a weekto attend morning minyan [End Page 129] where my father prayed each dayand where they did not countme for daily petitions Often absent my father Murraythey were one or two Jews shortand we all waited for another manto arrive murmuring quietlywhen the room felt fullwith nine men and me I overlookedhow only pricks counteduntil the rabbiexplained to me againthat I should return to my familythat I had no obligationto say kaddishfor my fatherthat even when I didstand and recite the ancient wordsmy prayers were not heardmy prayers would not hasten his arrivalin the world to comeor bring divine rest to his soul When the rabbiexplained againhow I did not countin G!d’s eyesI looked into hisand with all the poetrythat my father Murrayhad taught me I saidRabbi, I know what it isto not count in man’s eyesbut none of us knowwhat counts—who counts—in the eyes of G!d. [End Page 130] TIRZA ACKNOWLEDGES G!D’S PETTINESS Julie R. Enszer These days not allthe lamed-vavniks are Jewsthough many have some Hebraic lineage for others like Cellestinait is remote if present at allShe likes to say I am the descendent of DahomeyAfrican queenpredecessor to the nation of Benin She also boastslike Ginsburg and Whitman’s(literal metaphorical) seminal connection she can trace her lineagehand by sweet sticky handto Audre Lorde We all smile and nodas if we knowwhat she means Today is specialfor CellestinaToday she is the longest-serving lamed-vavnik G!d picked her in 1983when she wasjust twenty-three he wanted someone Blackand if I’m being honestit was a rebuff to Ronald Reagan [End Page 131] and his smear of welfare queensby any measure Cellestinawas the kind of woman he had in mind receiving food aid(but not driving a Cadillac)three young children and smart as a whipshe knew what this countryowed her after the failed reparationsof slavery(for years when she spoke she askedwhere is my land?where is my mule?) after the years of votingdenied and substandardeducation Cellestina wanted to rightit all and Reagannever realized what his words called fortha lamed-vavnik who wasyoung Black angry militant Cellestina was notyour bubbe’s lamed-vavnikShe was the beginning of the string of womennew righteous onesCellestina is hardworking [End Page 132] and funnya giver of light to Chicago’s southsideShe reminds G!d of endurancethe importance
{"title":"Miriam Bat Murray, and: Tirza Acknowledges G!D’s Pettiness, and: Miriam from The Diaspora of Alaska","authors":"Julie R. Enszer","doi":"10.2979/jfs.2023.a893196","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2979/jfs.2023.a893196","url":null,"abstract":"Miriam Bat Murray, and: Tirza Acknowledges G!D’s Pettiness, and: Miriam from The Diaspora of Alaska Julie R. Enszer (bio) Before my father diedhe woke every morningat 6 a.m. drank coffeedressed and walked outthe door at 6:40 a.m.He walked a mile on the streets ofHoboken to the shulwhere he prayedin the morning minyan When he failed to arriveone Wednesday the rabbiwent to his houseknocked on the doorand when he did not answerthe rabbi peered into the backbedroom window to see himlying dead in the bedhe shared for sixtyyears with my mother I flew home three flightstwo connections from Anchorageto sit on low hard stools for my fatherthen extended my trip a weekto attend morning minyan [End Page 129] where my father prayed each dayand where they did not countme for daily petitions Often absent my father Murraythey were one or two Jews shortand we all waited for another manto arrive murmuring quietlywhen the room felt fullwith nine men and me I overlookedhow only pricks counteduntil the rabbiexplained to me againthat I should return to my familythat I had no obligationto say kaddishfor my fatherthat even when I didstand and recite the ancient wordsmy prayers were not heardmy prayers would not hasten his arrivalin the world to comeor bring divine rest to his soul When the rabbiexplained againhow I did not countin G!d’s eyesI looked into hisand with all the poetrythat my father Murrayhad taught me I saidRabbi, I know what it isto not count in man’s eyesbut none of us knowwhat counts—who counts—in the eyes of G!d. [End Page 130] TIRZA ACKNOWLEDGES G!D’S PETTINESS Julie R. Enszer These days not allthe lamed-vavniks are Jewsthough many have some Hebraic lineage for others like Cellestinait is remote if present at allShe likes to say I am the descendent of DahomeyAfrican queenpredecessor to the nation of Benin She also boastslike Ginsburg and Whitman’s(literal metaphorical) seminal connection she can trace her lineagehand by sweet sticky handto Audre Lorde We all smile and nodas if we knowwhat she means Today is specialfor CellestinaToday she is the longest-serving lamed-vavnik G!d picked her in 1983when she wasjust twenty-three he wanted someone Blackand if I’m being honestit was a rebuff to Ronald Reagan [End Page 131] and his smear of welfare queensby any measure Cellestinawas the kind of woman he had in mind receiving food aid(but not driving a Cadillac)three young children and smart as a whipshe knew what this countryowed her after the failed reparationsof slavery(for years when she spoke she askedwhere is my land?where is my mule?) after the years of votingdenied and substandardeducation Cellestina wanted to rightit all and Reagannever realized what his words called fortha lamed-vavnik who wasyoung Black angry militant Cellestina was notyour bubbe’s lamed-vavnikShe was the beginning of the string of womennew righteous onesCellestina is hardworking [End Page 132] and funnya giver of light to Chicago’s southsideShe reminds G!d of endurancethe importance","PeriodicalId":44347,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF FEMINIST STUDIES IN RELIGION","volume":"29 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135532802","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-01DOI: 10.2979/jfs.2023.a893190
{"title":"Katie Geneva Cannon Award Description","authors":"","doi":"10.2979/jfs.2023.a893190","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2979/jfs.2023.a893190","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44347,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF FEMINIST STUDIES IN RELIGION","volume":"29 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135532801","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-01DOI: 10.2979/jfs.2023.a893197
Carine Plancke
Abstract: Womb yoga is a women’s yoga practice developed in the UK from the observation that male bodies and experiences are privileged in mainstream yoga. Based on modern postural yoga, womb yoga integrates the philosophy and mythology of śakta tantra in reference to scholarly texts and reinterprets tantric traditions in line with Anglo-American Goddess spirituality. Through body practice, chanting, visualization, and ritual, female cyclic experiences and the different stages of women’s lives are approached as gateways to the divine and as opportunities for spiritual empowerment. In addition, by offering a seasonal understanding of the menstrual cycle and establishing energetic resonances between natural elements and the body, womb yoga fosters experiences of cosmic connection and communion. The study is based on ethnographic research, combining participant observation and in-depth interviews. It details the practice of womb yoga and the experiences it engenders among participants, and discusses its feminist potential.
{"title":"Reclaiming Yoga as a Practice of Female Empowerment","authors":"Carine Plancke","doi":"10.2979/jfs.2023.a893197","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2979/jfs.2023.a893197","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: Womb yoga is a women’s yoga practice developed in the UK from the observation that male bodies and experiences are privileged in mainstream yoga. Based on modern postural yoga, womb yoga integrates the philosophy and mythology of śakta tantra in reference to scholarly texts and reinterprets tantric traditions in line with Anglo-American Goddess spirituality. Through body practice, chanting, visualization, and ritual, female cyclic experiences and the different stages of women’s lives are approached as gateways to the divine and as opportunities for spiritual empowerment. In addition, by offering a seasonal understanding of the menstrual cycle and establishing energetic resonances between natural elements and the body, womb yoga fosters experiences of cosmic connection and communion. The study is based on ethnographic research, combining participant observation and in-depth interviews. It details the practice of womb yoga and the experiences it engenders among participants, and discusses its feminist potential.","PeriodicalId":44347,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF FEMINIST STUDIES IN RELIGION","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135532807","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-01DOI: 10.2979/jfs.2023.a893193
Rosemary Admiral
Abstract: Recent debates have commented on Islamic law’s lack of an explicit concept of consent to sexual relations within a marriage. The current research explores the complex dynamics of consent within marriage by mapping the modern category of consent onto the premodern context, while at the same time considering the ways in which the utilization of this category obscures aspects of women’s agency and the power dynamics of sexual relationships. Through analysis of legal sources (fatwas) that document marital disputes in premodern North Africa and al-Andalus, this article argues that instances of women refusing sex scattered throughout the sources add nuance to narratives of consent to consider women as sexual agents and active partners in negotiating practices recognizable in modern discussions of consent within marriage.
{"title":"Navigating Consent: On Women’s Sexual Agency in the Premodern Islamic West","authors":"Rosemary Admiral","doi":"10.2979/jfs.2023.a893193","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2979/jfs.2023.a893193","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: Recent debates have commented on Islamic law’s lack of an explicit concept of consent to sexual relations within a marriage. The current research explores the complex dynamics of consent within marriage by mapping the modern category of consent onto the premodern context, while at the same time considering the ways in which the utilization of this category obscures aspects of women’s agency and the power dynamics of sexual relationships. Through analysis of legal sources (fatwas) that document marital disputes in premodern North Africa and al-Andalus, this article argues that instances of women refusing sex scattered throughout the sources add nuance to narratives of consent to consider women as sexual agents and active partners in negotiating practices recognizable in modern discussions of consent within marriage.","PeriodicalId":44347,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF FEMINIST STUDIES IN RELIGION","volume":"476 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135532804","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-01DOI: 10.2979/jfs.2023.a893198
Darryl Stephens
Abstract: Trauma-informed Christian ethics seeks to expose and redress patterns of systemic patriarchy and racism, leveraging privilege in solidarity with trauma survivors. Drawing on trauma studies and feminist theology and ethics, particularly the relational theology of Marjorie Suchocki and the defiant and resistance ethics of Traci West, this article presents bearing witness to victim-survivors as a liberative moral act spanning the range from compassion to politics. It begins with a discussion of traumatic ruptures and humanity’s unique ability to transcend violence. Bearing witness is then described in four perspectival moments, correlated to distinct modes of transcendence, moral themes, and practices paralleling stages of trauma recovery and trauma-informed response. From a recognition of human dignity to political activism, bearing witness provides persons of relative privilege a process for joining in solidarity with survivors of trauma, enabling new liberative practices in the current era of multiple and intersecting social and personal traumas.
{"title":"Bearing Witness: A Trauma-Informed Approach to Christian Ethics","authors":"Darryl Stephens","doi":"10.2979/jfs.2023.a893198","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2979/jfs.2023.a893198","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: Trauma-informed Christian ethics seeks to expose and redress patterns of systemic patriarchy and racism, leveraging privilege in solidarity with trauma survivors. Drawing on trauma studies and feminist theology and ethics, particularly the relational theology of Marjorie Suchocki and the defiant and resistance ethics of Traci West, this article presents bearing witness to victim-survivors as a liberative moral act spanning the range from compassion to politics. It begins with a discussion of traumatic ruptures and humanity’s unique ability to transcend violence. Bearing witness is then described in four perspectival moments, correlated to distinct modes of transcendence, moral themes, and practices paralleling stages of trauma recovery and trauma-informed response. From a recognition of human dignity to political activism, bearing witness provides persons of relative privilege a process for joining in solidarity with survivors of trauma, enabling new liberative practices in the current era of multiple and intersecting social and personal traumas.","PeriodicalId":44347,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF FEMINIST STUDIES IN RELIGION","volume":"15 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135532806","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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