Table Of ContentISLAMIC STUDIES SERIES
Muslim Women Online
Faith and identity in virtual space
Anna Piela
Muslim Women Online
While issues surrounding Muslim women are common in the
international media, the voices of Muslim women themselves are
largely absent from media coverage and despite the rapidly increasing
presence of Muslim women in online groups and discussions, it is still
a relatively unexplored topic. This book examines Muslim women
in transnational online groups, and their views on education, culture,
marriage, sexuality, work, dress-code, race, class and sisterhood.
Looking at both egalitarian and traditionalist Muslim women’s views,
the author considers their interpretations of Islam and identifies a new
category of holists who focus on developing the Islamic sisterhood.
Drawing on detailed analysis of online transcripts, she highlights
women’s rhetorical techniques and the thorough knowledge of Islamic
sources which they use to justify their points in online discussions. She
details how in the online context, as opposed to offline interactions,
Muslim women are much more willing to cross boundaries between
traditionalist and egalitarian interpretations of Islam and women’s Islamic
rights and responsibilities and to develop collaborative interpretations
with supporters of different views.
Shedding light on a candid and forthright global community, this
book is an important contribution to the debate on women in Islam, and
as such will be of interest to scholars and students of Islamic studies,
gender studies, media studies and the Middle East.
Anna Piela has a PhD in Women’s Studies from the University of
York. Her research focuses on interpretations of Islamic texts produced
by Muslim women in online spaces, and she has published articles
in the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, Contemporary Islam and
CyberOrient.
Routledge Islamic Studies Series
This broad ranging series includes books on Islamic issues from all parts of the
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Muslim Women Online
Faith and identity in virtual space
Anna Piela
First published 2012
by Routledge
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Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2012 Anna Piela
The right of Anna Piela to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
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to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Piela, Anna.
Muslim women online: faith and identity in virtual space / Anna Piela.
p. cm. – (Routledge Islamic Studies series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Feminism–Islamic countries. 2. Muslim women–Islamic countries–Social
conditions. 3. Social networks–Islamic countries. I. Title.
HQ1785.P54 2011
302.23¢1088297082–dc22
2011015282
ISBN 978-0-415-59697-8 (hbk)
ISBN 978-0-203-80197-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman by GCS, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction 1
1 Islamic Feminisms? 19
2 Participants’ Methodologies of Engaging with
Islamic Sources 41
3 Marriage, Sexuality and Polygamy 66
4 Employment and Mobility 102
5 Sisterhood 118
Conclusion 139
Glossary 147
Bibliography 149
Index 165
Acknowledgements
Doing a PhD is a long and complex process that is never achieved on
one’s own. This book would never have come into being but for the
support of many people whom I would like to thank. First and foremost,
I am deeply indebted to both my supervisors, Ann Kaloski-Naylor and
Haleh Afshar, for their patient mentoring and support, constructive
feedback and friendship during the entire writing process. They have
taught me the meaning of academic standards and rigour; by putting
their faith in me, they have made this book possible. I am also grateful
to Roger Burrows on my Book Advisory Panel as well as to Gabriele
Griffin at the Centre for Women’s Studies for insightful comments on
my work. I also want to specially thank the CWS administrator, Harriet
Badger, for four years of assistance and warm support. My heartfelt
gratitude goes to my late MA project supervisor, Andrzej Kapiszewski
of the Jagiellonian University, whose extensive knowledge, pedagogic
talent, and personal integrity contributed to the development of my
interest in the study of Islam. I will always remember him as an academic
role model whose example also encouraged me to pursue a career in
research. I thank Tariq Ramadan and Stevi Jackson for examining my
thesis and their subsequent invaluable advice.
This project would not have happened without the input of
online group moderators and my research participants, whose online
conversations have enlightened me and provided a new perspective, not
only on Islamic expressions, but on my own life as well.
I am fortunate to be friends with Jyothsna Beliappa, Julia Carter,
Lizzie Guinness, Rosey Hill, Maria Karepova, Kate MacLean, Laura
Zahra MacDonald, and Petra Nordqvist. I appreciate their collective
encouragement which helped me finish this dissertation. My special
thanks go to Jody Mellor, Sanja Bilič, Zahra Tizro, and Cirihn Malpocher
for sharing their research ideas and participating in intellectual debates.
I have enjoyed every moment that we have worked together in reading
viii Acknowledgements
groups and at workshops, seminars and conferences. I will always be
grateful for your being there for me when I needed food for thought
and emotional support.
I am grateful to the British Women Graduates’ Foundation for
financial support throughout the third year of my PhD study, as well
as the British Sociological Association for enabling me to present at
international conferences.
Finally, I would like to thank my sister Krysia, my parents Małgorzata
and Henryk, and grandparents Bronisława and Henryk. I would not
have achieved all this without your unconditional love and support. I
am also greatly thankful to my husband Joe for his unwavering love, as
well as insightful comments and tireless proofreading of my chapters,
looking after me and keeping me going for this last, most fruitful, but
also most difficult year.
Introduction
Technological developments over the past two decades have transformed
the way in which people interact with each other and go about their
daily business. The expansion of the Internet has even affected the
way some people practise and experience religion. There are now
for example religious social networks, such as GodTube, which was
the fastest growing site in August 2007 (Eldon 2007). There are also
specialized networks for Christians, Muslims, and Hindus. Believers
can also sign up to dating portals which allow them to label themselves
as religious. But does technology reach beyond the mundane sphere of
religion, into exegesis and the spiritual?
An important question is: to what extent does the combination of
technology and religion duplicate existing debates, or transform them?
Marshall McLuhan famously argued that ‘the medium is the message’
in his book Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (987).
He believed that the medium permeated the message and remained
in a symbiotic relationship with it. In other words, he claimed that
information was shaped and conditioned by technology used to transmit
it. Although McLuhan’s concepts were widely critiqued and challenged
as technological determinism (Baudrillard 967; Williams 975), it has
been argued that the Internet assumes a certain degree of independence
and ‘plays’ with the old triad ‘message-medium-receiver’, sometimes
putting it in altogether new configurations (Morris and Ogan 996). If
the nature of the medium were to affect the message, how would Islam
become different by being situated online?
Islam has a strong presence online, and its multiple interpretations
have found their way into cyberspace (Anderson 999, 2002; Bunt
2000, 2003, 2009). Muslims looking for scholars’ opinions, translations
and interpretations of the holy texts and debate go online to find the
