Subject of Freedom by Saba Mahmood

Saba Mahmood, in “The subject of freedom” discusses how Feminism and Islam can be easily critiqued within feminist discourse and under western perception as these two, neither can be seen parallel empowering each other nor seen as an agency for empowerment. She entails the idea of freedom and liberty is mediated by cultural and historical conditions to better know the power politics, knowledge production, construction of bodies and subjectivities. The women’s mosque movement for the society of Egypt seemed to be effected as they helped transformation. However, for feminist scholars it seemed to be a subject of scrutiny because of the ideas embedded with in this discourse of tradition and culture were rooted to women as a subordinate.

     In my opinion, when we tend to give definition to “freedom”, it gets limited rather than extending it. It may be taken under scrutiny because freedom to me looks different than what freedom to my neighbor looks like. I was thinking about this question that she brings in her writing, “How do we conceive of Individual freedom in a context where the distinction between the subject’s own desires and socially prescribed performances can not be easily presumed, and where submission to certain forms of (external) authority is a condition for achieving the subject’s potentiality? (Mahmood p. 31)”