In Politics of Piety, Saba Mahmood does an amazing job at portraying the women’s mosque movement in Egypt in a new, less reductionistic light as opposed to the conventional approaches used by many scholars of feminism and theorists of agency. While Mahmood’s book revolves around these popular piety movements of the 90s, this book is much more than just an ethnographic inquiry; it is a scathing critique of secular liberal feminism, which has at times been exploited to serve imperial projects and to promulgate Western ideas at the expense of local, non-liberal ones. Ultimately, for this essay I will explore Mahmood’s critique, the application of her non-theory of agency, and her ethnographic presentation.
First, without a doubt, this book is …show more content…
Instead, Mahmood asserts, “Bodily behavior was therefore not so much as a sign of interiority as it was a means of acquiring its potentiality” (147). Though these bodily practices, women are able to become pious through their unconscious and conscious behavior. Their clothes and daily rituals captures for them the means to facilitate piety at its fullest. Unlike the habitus presented by Bourdieu, Mahmood’s presentation of Aristotle habitus definition causes one to “problematize how specific kinds of bodily practices come to articulate different conceptions of the ethical subject, and how bodily form does not simply express the social structure but also endows the self with particular capacities through which the subject can enact the world” (139). Bodily practices are multidimensional modalities which perform many purposes and functions. Routinization of dispositions, virtues, and behaviors solidifies the virtues which the participant hopes to achieve. Through the lens of ethical formation, Mahmood reveals just how complex the feminist subject truly
First, without a doubt, this book is …show more content…
Instead, Mahmood asserts, “Bodily behavior was therefore not so much as a sign of interiority as it was a means of acquiring its potentiality” (147). Though these bodily practices, women are able to become pious through their unconscious and conscious behavior. Their clothes and daily rituals captures for them the means to facilitate piety at its fullest. Unlike the habitus presented by Bourdieu, Mahmood’s presentation of Aristotle habitus definition causes one to “problematize how specific kinds of bodily practices come to articulate different conceptions of the ethical subject, and how bodily form does not simply express the social structure but also endows the self with particular capacities through which the subject can enact the world” (139). Bodily practices are multidimensional modalities which perform many purposes and functions. Routinization of dispositions, virtues, and behaviors solidifies the virtues which the participant hopes to achieve. Through the lens of ethical formation, Mahmood reveals just how complex the feminist subject truly