This article tests two competing theories of the relationship between piety and redistributive preferences in the Muslim world. The first, drawn from the new political economy of religion, holds that more pious individuals of any faith should oppose redistributive economic policies. The second, drawn from Islamic scripture, holds that pious Muslims should favor more redistributive economic policies. Employing survey data from twenty-five countries, the authors find that there is no clear relationship between piety and redistributive preferences among Muslims. The authors find that more pious Muslims are less likely to favor government efforts to eliminate income inequality, but they find only inconsistent evidence that more pious Muslims support governments taking responsibility for the well-being of the poor. The findings offer little evidence to suggest that either scriptural or organizational factors unique to Islam create distinct economic policy preferences.

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This article explores the relationship between headcovering and women's political participation through an original online survey of 1,917 Muslim-American women. As a visible marker of religious group identity, wearing the headscarf can orient the integration of Muslim women into the American political system via its impact on the openness of their associational life. Our survey respondents who cover are more likely to form insular, strong ties with predominantly Muslim friend networks, which decreased their likelihood of voting and affiliating with a political party. Interestingly, frequency of mosque attendance across both covered and uncovered respondents is associated with a higher probability of political participation, an effect noted in other religious institutions in the United States. Yet, mosque attendance can simultaneously decrease the political engagement of congregants if they are steered into exclusively religious friend groups. This discovery reveals a tension within American Muslim religious life and elaborates on the role of religious institutions vs. social networks in politically mobilizing Muslim-Americans.

This article aims to survey the state of the literature on gender quotas in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), explicitly focusing on where it stands in terms of their institutional, political, and societal impact after two decades of implementation.In addition, it considers how MENA scholarship on the topic compares with the global literature and includes insights into how region-specific work contributes to our understanding of gender quotas as an electoral and legislative institution overall.

Objective. Mainstream American perception often views Islamic headcovering as a controversial practice indicative of gender repression and norms violating individual rights. Practicing Muslims counter that headcovering expresses piety, modesty, and protection. Recent scholarship affirms the complexity of the practice, and reveals that the motivations behind donning the headscarf span the religious, social, and political realms for Muslim women. Methods. We explore the motivations for the practice among American Muslims, examining the way religious, social, and political life interact and reinforce one another, using data from an online survey of 1,847 Muslim-American women from 49 states. Results. Our findings demonstrate that religiosity is not a monolithic factor, and religious practices interact with and enforce headcovering in complex ways. We illustrate that conventionally understood indicators of Islamic religiosity align along three dimensions: religious lifestyle, religious abstinence, and religious socialization. Elements of a religious lifestyle, such as praying and attending mosque as well as fostering connections with Islamic social networks, are more strongly associated with covering than practices related to abstinence or socialization. Conclusions. Ultimately, our research demonstrates a more nuanced understanding of how different aspects of Muslim religiosity condition covering among Muslim-American women. * Direct correspondence to Aubrey Westfall, 26 E. Main St., Norton, MA 02766, westfall_aubrey@ wheatoncollege.edu . All data and coding are available upon request for anyone wishing to replicate this study. We thank Virginia Wesleyan College and the University of Nevada, Reno, for their financial support to conduct and analyze the survey. We also thank the reviewers for their helpful comments. 1 A term including the practice of wearing a headscarf, veil, hijab, any other localized term for headscarf, a burqa, or a niqab.

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