Transforming everyday life: Islamism and social movement theory

Tuğal, Cihan

doi:10.1007/s11186-009-9091-7

Cited by 96 publications

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“…Bodily practices are not just symbols used by social movements but crucial paths to realizing the self (Mahmood 2003). In his work on Islamists in Turkey, Cihan Tuğal (2009) corroborates this understanding of social movements and everyday piety. Tuğal uses the case of Islamists in Turkey to argue that the state is intrinsically part of the formation of subjects and their identities and moreover, that the state is transformed and challenged even in the absence of traditional forms of political protest.…”

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confidence: 73%

“…2 Much of the recent academic literature that has sought to understand Islamic Revivals (including Salafist Islam) or more specifically, Muslim women's piety movements that have incorporated stricter veiling standards, has challenged the narrow liberal assumptions and orientalist fears that underlay disdain for a personal ethical practice as the burqa (Mahmood 2005;Abu-Lughod 2002;Khan 1998). However, rather than problematizing the politicization of religious practice, the literature has insisted that everyday piety and ethics is inherently a form of politics (Hirschkind 2006;Mahmood 2005;Wenman 2003;Warren 1999;Connolly 1995), that it represents a political imaginary and nurtures political demands (Tuğal 2009). This paper questions the politicization of Islamic Revival movements first, by pointing out the normative stakes of different definitions of politics-as either based on ethical practice (as per the more recent trend) or on traditional forms of direct engagement with the state.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Debating the Burqa in France: the Antipolitics of Islamic Revival

Parvez

2011

Qual Sociol

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In 2009 a French national commission was created to issue recommendations against "the burqa" and raise the possibility of a ban on the practice in certain public settings. This paper explores the different normative stakes of politicizing the burqa and the form of Islamic Revival with which it is associated. Recent scholarship has sought to overturn orientalist depictions of Islamic movements but has insisted that bodily ethical practices, such as Muslim women's veiling, constitute forms of politics. Based on ethnographic research in a women's mosque community in a poor suburb of Lyon, France, I argue that these women are not engaged in a form of politics but rather, antipolitics, a movement originally conceptualized in the 1970s and 80s as a rejection of politics and a valorization of private life. Three components define their antipolitics: a reconfiguration of the private sphere against an intrusive state, a retreat into a moral community, and emphasis on spiritual conditions and achievement of serenity. In interrogating different meanings of politics and antipolitics, this paper suggests a rethinking of the relationship between "political Islam" and piety movements.Keywords Islam . France . Gender . Politics Few expressions of faith today cause as much fear and loathing in plural democracies as the "burqa."1 The pity and disdain many feel for these women is a nearly automatic reaction Qual Sociol (2011) 34:287-312 DOI 10.1007/s11133-011-9192-21 The term "burqa" is not employed by those in the Muslim community who are familiar with women's veiling practices. The word is currently used in France to refer to both the full body covering including the face, except the eyes, as well as a mesh-fabric covering over the eyes. These are the specific practices being debated in the French Assembly and that among adherents, are known as a "niqab" or "sitar" (which covers the eyes). The sitar is an exceptionally rare practice in France. Most of the women among whom I conducted fieldwork wore "the djelbab," which refers to a long hair and body covering that leaves the face exposed. Some of them also wore the niqab. In this paper, I switch back and forth between the terms djelbab and burqa. Most of the discourses and phenomena I describe refer to these groups of women more generally, regardless of which ones wear only a djelbab and which choose to also wear a niqab. There was little distinction made in the Assembly hearings between these practices.

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confidence: 73%

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Debating the Burqa in France: the Antipolitics of Islamic Revival

Parvez

2011

Qual Sociol

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“…Kavakçı refused to remove her veil, thus challenging Turkey's ban on wearing the headscarf in public places. As a result, the Gülen movement sought to promote Islam through the transformation of everyday practices (see also Tuğal 2009). Less than two weeks 88 Dialogue later, she was stripped of her Turkish citizenship following the discovery that she also held US citizenship.…”

Section: Transforming Everyday Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Power, politics and social movements: a multi-institutional politics approach

Bernstein

2013

Politics, Groups and Identities

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IntroductionHow important is the state as a locus of social change for Islamic movements whose goal is to promote Islam (Gurbuz and Bernstein 2012)? Why do multi-racial movements create collective responses to the question "What are you?" and view their responses to this question as political (Bernstein and De La Cruz 2009)? Why do diseases become rallying points for social movements (Klawiter 2008)? These questions cannot be answered through traditional state-and economycentered notions of power that underlie traditional notions of "politics."In this paper, I examine how expanding a view of power beyond the state allows us to understand contemporary movements for social change as political movements. I adopt a multi-institutional politics (MIP) framework (Armstrong and Bernstein 2008) to argue that understanding social movement strategies and goals requires theorizing about the nature of domination in society. The movements that I discuss in this paper, the Turkish Islamic Gülen movement, the US multi-racial Hapa movement, and the US breast cancer movement, each challenge different manifestations of power and cannot be understood through social movement theory that relies on state-and economy-centric notions of power. I first review and then critique the underlying assumptions about power that motivate political process theory, the reigning theory in the field of social movements. I then outline the MIP framework and its approach to understanding power and social movements and suggest that it provides more powerful tools for understanding a variety of social movement challenges. Finally, drawing on the research of Gurbuz and Bernstein (2012), De La Cruz (2009) andKlawiter (2008), respectively, I examine in turn the Gülen movement, the Hapa movement, and the breast cancer movement. For each movement, I theorize the forms that power and regulation take and how understanding those forms of power and regulation are necessary for understanding the strategies and goals of these movements.

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“…Islamic movements, similar to other social movements since the 1960s, bridge the divide between formal politics and the cultural realm (Tugal 2009). They address state policies while also critiquing everyday life and infusing the public sphere with moral discourses (Salvatore and LeVine 2005).…”

Section: Globalization Feminism and Islammentioning

confidence: 99%

Muslim Women, Moral Visions: Globalization and Gender Controversies in Indonesia

Rinaldo

2011

Qual Sociol

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Since 1998, Indonesia's democratization has produced contentious public debates, many of which revolve around issues of gender and sexual morality. Yet such controversies not only often focus on women, but also involve women as participants. This article examines how Muslim women activists in two organizations adapt global discourses to participate in important public sphere debates about pornography and polygamy. Indonesia's moral debates demonstrate an important way in which global discourses are negotiated in national settings. In the debates, some pious women use discourses of feminism and liberal Islam to argue for women's equality, while others use Islam to call for greater moral regulation of society. My research demonstrates that global discourses of feminism and Islamic revivalism are mediated through national organizations which shape women's political activism and channel it in different directions. Women's political subjectivities are thus shaped through their involvement in national organizations that structure the ways they engage with global discourses. The Indonesian case shows not only that the national should not be conflated with the local, but also demonstrates the significance of national contexts and histories for understanding global processes.

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Transforming everyday life: Islamism and social movement theory

Cited by 96 publications

References 68 publications

Debating the Burqa in France: the Antipolitics of Islamic Revival

Debating the Burqa in France: the Antipolitics of Islamic Revival

Power, politics and social movements: a multi-institutional politics approach

Muslim Women, Moral Visions: Globalization and Gender Controversies in Indonesia

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