Women and Islamisation - Carving a New Space in Muslim Societies

Abstract

The diversity in Muslim women's religious practices and positions within contemporary resurgent Islam, often referred to as "Islamic fundamentalism", has so far been given little attention. The different chapters in this volume describe gendered practices and female participation in a number of groups related to Islamic movements. We analyse how the muslim component of a woman's identity is made relevant in new ways for self-understanding and pragmatic choices in every day life. The analytical arguments and ethnographic data presented seek to dislocate understandings of Islamist and Islamic "fundamentalism" that analyse the movement mainly as a reaction against "Westernisation" and modernisation".