Saba Mahmood "Agency, Gender and Embodiment"

Saba Mahmood's chapter considers the understanding of agency within and outside of liberal frameworks. Within the liberal framework, Mahmood defines our understanding as simply resistance to oppression. Agency is a term for how we resist oppressive forces. It is the method in which we continue to "progress" as a society. There is an understanding that agency must always result in progressing "forward" and further in the Western world. However, this is a limited understanding of what agency is. Mahmood discusses two examples of situations within Muslim communities that require agency that cannot be defined in the liberal progressive framework; these alternative agencies are reactions that come out of a more complex cultural and social background, as well as respond to various societal forces, not just one system of power. Mahmood's two examples are the stigmatization of not being married in Egyptian society (as well as two forms of agency that act as responses to this situation), and the balance of what moral codes to follow for Muslim women (and reading this response not as a reaction to patriarchal forces, but a reaction to multiple religious and societal expectations).

Mahmood's article demonstrates some of the complexities that play a role in Muslim women's agency when responding to situations involving religious or social expectations. Agency is complicated when there are numerous factors involved in your response to a situation; this is a viewpoint many liberal progressives may find perplexing, as liberal understanding of agency relies on a binary relationship between oppressive systems of power and reactionary resistance to this power. However, agency cannot be so one-sided in its scope. There are numerous things that come into play with an individual's agency, especially so for Muslim women. Mahmood uses the example of agency in the situation of upholding Islamic principles of piety when faced with the need to break a separate Islamic principle (maintaining devout piety while your husband demands the opposite). Is it more proper to disobey God's rights over you or disobey your husband's expectations? There are multiple agencies that can be demonstrated here; divorcing your husband for standing in the way of your path to God, being patient (sabr) with a disapproving husband, withholding meals or sex, demonstrating higher morality, and more. Mahmood wants to illustrate the point that no matter what response is chosen in this situation, the woman's agency is not in the limited scope of resisting one-dimensional patriarchal power. Agency is complicated and differs between individuals. To have such a narrow, problematic understanding of agency limits our ability to understand the complexities of Muslim women's lives.