Religion, the Secular, and the Politics of Sexual Difference

Linell E. Cady is professor of religious studies and director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict at Arizona State University. Tracy Fessenden is associate professor of religious studies at Arizona State University.

This exciting volume defamiliarizes our understanding of secularization as process and practice. The contributors raise profound questions regarding the persistence of 'the religious' as a form of ethicality, as a resistant presence and practice, and as an animating constraint in women's lives. The theoretical range and global scope of the volume is a remarkable achievement. -- Anupama Rao, Barnard College Rather than taking what is often viewed as the high road of secularism, the contributors challenge the ability of both religion and secularism to provide master narratives for the equality of women. This book is a vital contribution to the new feminism that is currently emerging at local, national, and global levels. It opens space for new collaborations and theoretical innovations and encourages us to 'imagine differently.' -- Lori G. Beaman, University of Ottawa Many feminists have hoped-and many fundamentalists have feared-that the decline of religion would lead inevitably to women's liberation. This bold, thought-provoking book shows how, around the world, the gender politics of secularism are confounding the easy assumptions of progressives and conservatives alike. -- Joseph Kip Kosek, George Washington University This book both genders and shatters the divide between the secular and the religious in a global context. By historicizing the privatization of both women and religion in modernity, these essays unhinge any simple alignment between feminism and secularism. Cady and Fessenden have produced a collection that coheres, a must read for scholars of gender and all those engaged with the question of the secular. -- Laura S. Levitt, Temple University

• Preface and Acknowledgments Part 1 by Gendering the Divide 1. Religion, the Secular, and the Politics of Sexual Difference: An Introduction, by Linell E. Cady and Tracy Fessenden 2. Secularism and Gender Equality, by Joan Wallach Scott 3. Sexuality and Secularism, by Saba Mahmood 4. Must It Be Either Secular or Religious? Reflections on the Contemporary Journeys of Women's Rights Activists in Egypt, by Azza Karam 5. Religion and Women's Political Mobilization, by Ann Braude Part 2 by Gender and the Privatization of Religion 6. Secular Liberalism, Roman Catholicism, and Social Hierarchies: Understanding Multiple Paths, by Gene Burns 7. Gendering the Secular and Religious in Modern Egypt: Woman, Family, and Nation, by Margot Badran 8. Women, Religion, and Politics in Bosnia and Herzegovina, by Zilka Spahi?-Siljak Part 3 by Gender, Sexuality, and the Body Politic 9. Bodies-Politics: Christian Secularism and the Gendering of U.S. Policy, by Janet R. Jakobsen and Ann Pellegrini 10. Crimes of Moral Turpitude: Questions at the Borders of Religion, the Secular, and the U.S. Nation-State, by Molly K. McGarry 11. On French Religions and Their Renewed Embodiments, by Nacira Guenif-Souilamas Part 4 by Bridging the Divide 12. Rescued by Law? Gender and the Global Politics of Secularism, by Elizabeth Shakman Hurd 13. The Brahmin Widow and Female Religious Agency: Anticaste Critique in Two Modern Indian Texts, by Rajeswari Sunder Rajan 14. Issues with Authority: Feminist Commitments in a Late Secular Age, by David Kyuman Kim Bibliography Contributors Index