The Subject of Freedom by Saba Mahmood

In the chapter The Subject of Freedom Saba Mahmood explores Muslim Women's agency. She debates that there are negative reactions to women accepting Islam and that there is a wide belief that if they were freed from that society, they would let go of Islam. Mahmood argues that women's resistance should be understood as women's attempt to transfer power to themselves from a male dominated structure and establish autonomy. Furthermore, Mahmood explains that a woman’s freedom needs to be based on procedural principle and not an ontological one. Later Mahmood covers the topic of norms and discusses how norms are “performed, lived and inhabited” (Mahmood, 22) and gives a great example of how the norm which is a social construct imposes a bodily restriction and some authors oppose the veil but support the modesty. What form of norms are Muslim women mostly confined to? Are they legal, moral or social norms? What makes a norm die out specifically pertaining to the Muslim community since usually a norm is so closely intertwined with religion? Can Muslim women establish agency through certain norms or do norms need to be destroyed in order for women to establish agency?

I think a perfect example of a norm diminishing or transforming is the case of the Burkini where Muslim women chose to save their act of virtue but also challenge a norm that was mostly imposed on them by the western world that if they are wearing a burqa then they cannot enjoy the beach like everyone else. In an interview with the Burkini creator Aheda Zanetti she says that “it has given women freedom” and challenges the French authority who want to ban it which goes back to what Mahmood was arguing about positive and negative freedom. Zanetti was trying to practice positive freedom by giving Muslim women a way to have “autonomous will” (Mahmood, 11) and the French authority were practicing negative freedom by imposing their own perception of what freedom means. In addition, Zanetti challenges the French authority by asking them “what do you mean it doesn’t combine with French values?” which makes me question: How can we decide whose values are more important and from there create norms accordingly?