Based on first-hand ethnographic insights into Shi''i religious groups in the Middle East and Europe , this book examines women''s resistance to state as well as communal and gender power structures. It offers a new transnational approach to understanding gender agency within contemporary Islamic movements expressed through language, ritual practices, dramatic performances , posters and banners. By looking at the aesthetic performance of the political on the female body through Shi''i ritual practices – an aspect that has previously been ignored in studies on women''s acts of resistance -, Yafa Shanneik shows how women play a central role in redefining sectarian and gender power relations both in the Middle East and in the European diaspora.
