Deconstructing Religious-Secular Divides: Women's Rights Advocacy in Muslim-Majority Societies

Abstract

International relations (IR) scholars and policy makers are increasingly focusing on the global resurgence of religion in politics--particularly the roles of political Islam and religious extremism. Yet a gender lens that recognizes women as more than mere victims of these trends remains largely absent in their analyses. In response, this dissertation examines how women's rights activists in Muslim-majority societies are responding to these trends. How are they navigating the religious-secular divides that predominantly define the discourse on women's rights, and inserting their own voices in local and global discourses on religion in politics? Dominant approaches in both IR and feminist scholarship continue to treat religion as static and dogmatic, privileging secular approaches for attaining and defending women's rights. As an alternative, this dissertation defines and applies a feminist constructivist approach to religion that understands it as dynamic and intersubjective, and that acknowledges women's religious agency and lived experiences. Using an in-depth qualitative case study of a Malaysian Muslim women's rights organization, Sisters in Islam, as well as a small sample of in-depth interviews with activists in other Muslim-majority contexts, this study finds that both religious- and secular-identified activists are increasingly engaging religious issues and resources in their advocacy, both as a strategic response to shifting sociopolitical contexts and as a reflection of their personal ethics. This dissertation argues that IR and feminist scholars stand to gain important theoretical and empirical insights by recognizing the multiple modalities of women's religious agency. By privileging the lived experiences of women's rights activists, this study expands our understanding of the gendered constructions of religious and political power. It also reveals that religious and secular frameworks of women's rights can be compatible and complimentary, and are indeed increasingly integrated into the approaches of activists to strengthen their resonance within local and transnational spaces, representing a continuously evolving women's rights regime.