Women’s Religious Agency and the Positioning of the Mosque: a Case Study of State-Sponsored Female Preaching in Egypt

Author's Department

Political Science Department

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https://doi.org/10.1163/18763375-16020001

All Authors

Dina Hosni

Document Type

Research Article

Publication Title

Middle East Law and Governance

Publication Date

1-1-2024

doi

10.1163/18763375-16020001

Abstract

This paper captures women’s religious agency and their bonding with the mosque by taking a snapshot of the discourse and experiences of female preachers, appointed by the Egyptian Ministry of Endowments, who were confronted with the closure of mosques within the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic. Though these female preachers have managed to perform their preaching roles while being detached from the mosque, their spiritual affinity to the mosque could not escape notice. This paper argues that the detachment of the female preachers from the mosque due to covid-19 offers a novel conceptualization of ‘religious’ agency that could be partially ascribed to their attachment to the mosque, not as a locale for their ‘official’ or ‘semi-official’ affiliation with the state, but as a ‘sacred’ extension of the private space of the home.

First Page

165

Last Page

191

Comments

Article. Record derived from SCOPUS.

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