How religious extremism compromises women’s security, agency and mental health

Extremist forms of thinking regulate and restrict in particular, women’s agency in many parts of the world compromising women’s ability to make personal decisions or even informed choices. As increasingly documented, different lived experiences of Muslims dismisses the often presumed universal understanding of the theological framework undergirding Islamic praxis. This interview with Sarah Eltantawi, an intellectual historian of contemporary Islam who has focused on political Islam and Islamic law in Nigeria and Egypt, reviews the practical implications of the operations of Islamic law in contemporary societies. In the interview Eltantawi responds to concerns for women's security and the connections between peace and violence in the domestic environment as it links with the broader political and socio-economic context. There is increasing recognition of the ways in which Muslim women negotiate their understanding of the pietistic requirements to observe God’s will with contemporary ideas of agency in what is habitually touted as an hierarchical domain. This interview offers an Islamic feminist perspective on the intersections of women's security and pietistic norms, particularly in Nigeria and Egypt. Furthermore, it explores the intersections of religio-cultural and gender-based concerns for mental health as depression gradually becomes a leading illness globally. In this final element the interview suggests new avenues for feminist analysis of the intersections of personal security, reproductive health and depression

Agency (philosophy · Context (archaeology · Islam · Mental health · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Gender Studies · Islamic Studies and History · Law · Psychology · Religion, Society, and Development

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  Maria Alcidi, A Gribaldo et al.•Public Anthropologist•2023

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