Saba Mahmood (1962 – 2018) – Piety, religious freedom and Power
Last Saturday, 10 March, Saba Mahmood passed away. She was professor of anthropology at University of California, Berkeley. Her scholarly work was a big inspiration for me and many of my colleagues. She is probably best known for her groundbreaking book The politics of piety – The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject. In this book she analyzes the Egyptian piety movement and how women shape themselves as pious subjects trying to keep a religiously devout practice, while at the same time, being involved in education, employment, working and all sorts of social milieus.
The three interviews here give some insight into her work. The first one she discusses a controversy regarding her book the Politics of Piety and in the second one she engages with the topic of religious freedom. In the last interview she engages in a discussion with writer Mona Eltahawy on what the latter regards as the “toxic mix of religion and culture” in the Middle East.
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See also the series of articles at The Immanent Frame.