From exclusion to inclusion: women and interfaith dialogue in the Mediterranean area

This chapter details women's contribution to interfaith dialogue in the Mediterranean. This area is often referred to a uniform region and usually depicted as highly problematic, since conflicts and migration flows pose considerable risks to the security of the entire region. Moreover, the Mediterranean is not only an area of crisis and conflict, but also a space for opportunities and dialogue. Interreligious dialogue is a powerful tool for achieving peace and stability. Today, institutions for intercultural dialogue and cooperation, religious representatives, and interfaith organizations are working together to build mutual understanding in the region. This chapter shows that the interreligious dialogue has been changing its nature through a twofold enlargement centred on the gender dimension: vertical, by women belonging to intellectual elites; and horizontal, through a growing involvement of civil society.

‘Between me and my God’: a life story narrative of conciliating cultural discourses and personalization of Islam

This chapter offers a better understanding of the relation between gender and Islam by portraying and exploring a subjective account of conciliating religiosity and modern individualism. The study is conducted based on a life story narrative of a Muslim migrant woman from Iran, living in Belgium. Her life story and experiences prior to and after migration are analysed to reveal how she has built and made sense of her religiosity in the European context. By adopting a life story method, the chapter aims to investigate dynamics of conciliating supposedly contradicting cultural and religious discourses, and to explore religious belonging and personalization of faith.

Christian women’s movements in secularizing and diversifying contexts: a case study from Belgium

This chapter considers the case of Flanders. In Flanders, Christian women's movements belonging to Catholic civil society used to draw a large following and were able to contribute to the political, religious, and social emancipation of Catholic women throughout Belgium. Today, however, these Christian women's movements face declining membership and the need to ‘reinvent’ themselves according to contemporary times and women's needs. Looking at how a movement that is constitutive of Christian women's history in Flanders rethinks its self-presentation, the chapter aims to generate important insights, both descriptive and normative, into the role and place of Christian feminism and Christian women's movements in the face of social changes that take place across Western Europe.

Gender equality in different readings of Islam in post-revolutionary Iran

This chapter offers an understanding of women's rights and gender equality based on three interpretations of Islam within the context of post-revolutionary Iran. The debate among different interpretations of Islam provides a foundation for the investigation of women's rights and gender equality in various readings of Islam not only in the regional dimensions of Iran, but also in the Islamic world. While some studies and academic discussions tend to use the term fundamentalism to refer to religious revival movements, particularly within Islamic traditions, such discussions often fail to distinguish reformist and other movements within Islam, therefore identifying all Islamic revival movements as fundamentalist or as part of fundamentalist movements.

Women and religion: contemporary and future challenges: editors’ introduction

This introductory chapter discusses the relationship between social change, religion, and women's lives and self-definition in the contemporary world. Using international and interdisciplinary perspectives reflective of different religious traditions, this volume pays attention to the specific experiences and positions of women, or particular groups of women, to understand current patterns of religiosity and religious change. Recent studies have shown that there is a strong connection between processes of change — such as the impact of globalization, increased intercultural and transcultural interaction and exchange, migration flows, and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) — and religious identities. Overall, recent literature has revealed a great complexity and often contradiction in late modern negotiations of religion and secularism by women and men, and a range of possibilities for change.

The impact of religious unorthodoxy on family choices and women’s well-being in Turkey

This chapter provides evidence from Turkey, a Muslim-majority country, on how religious unorthodoxy is related to the number of children and generations living in a household, both of which strongly link to women's time burden and, consequently, their well-being. It uses data from Turkish Household Consumption Surveys, which contain rich information regarding household-level consumption, household characteristics, and individual characteristics. The evidence from Turkish Household Budget Surveys supports the idea that women who live in ‘sinful’ households, that is households which do not follow Sunni dogmas in their consumption patterns, are faced with lesser burdens of childcare and elder care responsibilities.

Formation of ‘religious’ identity among British Muslim women

This chapter explains how Muslim women are generally disadvantaged in the UK, as reflected in their high unemployment and inactivity rates compared to their male counterparts and other ethnic minority women, despite policies to reduce the diversity gap in the UK labour market based on gender and religious affiliations. Applying feminist theory and questioning Muslim women's place as a marginalized group at the centre of social inquiry, the chapter aims to understand the ways in which Muslim women negotiate religious and cultural norms and values. Studies indicate a feminist consciousness tapping into the Islamic framework as an enabling means for personal empowering in a rapidly changing world that challenges traditional gender issues.

Explorations of spiritual embodiment in belly dance

This chapter examines how US belly dancers view the practice as a spiritual endeavour, particularly in light of the negative perceptions surrounding it. It discusses findings from a decade-long ethnographic study (2003–13) involving several data-collection methods: observations; journal entries; online statements; and qualitative interviews, a mixed methods design needed due to the lack of research on this topic and the complexity involved in understanding it. Research suggests that belly dance holds much potential as an embodied spiritual practice, particularly when premised on holistic health (integration of body, mind and spirit). As such, the chapter contributes to the critical examination of women's spirituality within contemporary contexts.

Divine shadows: Indian Devadasis between religious beliefs and sexual exploitation

This chapter explores the origin and growth of the Devadasi system and highlights the present status of Devadasis in Indian society. The term Devadasi is a Sanskrit word, which literally translates to ‘female slave of God’. In contemporary times, for various sociohistorical reasons, the Devadasi tradition appears to have lost its status and is equated synonymously with prostitution and slavery in India. The chapter questions the importance of the religious factor in explaining the logic of the Devadasis' institution. Conversely, the element of caste and socioeconomic background are two fundamental aspects that must be taken into account. These factors, strictly interwoven, contribute to keeping this practice alive.

‘We are all Goddesses’: female sacred paths in Italy

This chapter reflects on the relations between gender and religion, by analysing a new form of spirituality coming from the Anglophone world — Goddess Spirituality — which has arrived in Italy in the new millennium. Goddess Spirituality is one of the most important and challenging forms, where the movement of rediscovering paths of the sacred female is evident. As some studies demonstrate, while an ever increasing proportion of women leave the Catholic Church, the majority do not redirect their spiritual seeking outside the Catholic milieu by approaching the world of so-called alternative spiritualities. Goddess Spirituality's contemporaneous spiritual/secular orientation is a source of empowerment for its adherents because it is capable of integrating into its symbolic, axiological universe a gender concept with a sacred dimension.