The lecture proposes that Saba Mahmood’s rejection of the notion of feminist agency is misplaced, above all because Mahmood fails to theorise female ethical leadership - the subtle detour that Muslim women have been making to claim rights, including the right to leadership, within Islam, through their extraordinary acts of ascetic self-discipline (askesis) . The lecture draws on Foucault’s theory of the ethical subject, particularly in Volumes II and III of The History of Sexuality to demonstrate that it is women’s asceticism, coupled with their discursive knowledge, which is enabling these women to breach the citadel of male Islamic scholarship and leadership. They are not merely resisting; through their practices they are initiating a minor revolution. In effect, they are foregoing certain personal freedoms in order to gain power and influence in religious spheres previously closed to them. In this their movement resembles feminist movements in Judaism and Christianity. Secondarily, I ask whether the current movement of young Muslim women and whole families to the Islamic State (ISIL) can be understood in terms of such theories of Islamic women’s piety.

This lecture is free and open to the public.

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Sponsored by ANU Gender Institute