Male Wives and Female Husbands: Reconfiguring gender in the Tablighi Jama'at in The Gambia$nElektronische Ressource
The Tablighi Jamaʻat—a transnational Islamic missionary movement that propagates greater religious devotion and observance in The Gambia—opens the door to a new experience of gendered Muslim piety. Tabligh or Islamic missionary work results in novel roles for women, who are now actively involved in...
| Published in: | Journal of religion in Africa |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2016
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| In: |
Journal of religion in Africa
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Gambia
/ Tablighi Jamaat
/ Islam
/ Gender-specific role
/ Masculinity
/ Piety
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| IxTheo Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy AG Religious life; material religion BJ Islam KBN Sub-Saharan Africa |
| Further subjects: | B
Islamic Reform
Tablighi Jamaʻat
piety
gender
masculinity
The Gambia
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| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | The Tablighi Jamaʻat—a transnational Islamic missionary movement that propagates greater religious devotion and observance in The Gambia—opens the door to a new experience of gendered Muslim piety. Tabligh or Islamic missionary work results in novel roles for women, who are now actively involved in the public sphere—a domain usually defined as male. To provide their wives with more time to engage in tabligh, Tablighi men share the domestic workload, although this is generally considered ‘women’s work’ in Gambian society. Contrary to the conventional approach in scholarship on gender and Islam to study such inversion of gender roles in terms of Muslim women’s ‘empowerment’ and Muslim men’s ‘emancipation’, in the Gambian branch of the Jamaʻat the reconfiguration of gender norms seems to be motivated by Tablighis’ wish to return to the purported origins of Islam. Following the example of the Prophet’s wives, Tablighi women actively engage in tabligh and, taking Muhammad as their example, Tablighi men have taken over part of their wives’ household chores. Paradoxically, by reconfiguring gender norms Gambian Tablighis eventually reinstate the patriarchal gender order. |
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| ISSN: | 1570-0666 |
| Contains: | In: Journal of religion in Africa
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15700666-12340084 |