Assumptions on Gender Equality in the Narrative of Secularism
Abstract
Secularism, which is central to the Enlightenment narrative, promises liberation, freedom, emancipation, and progress to humanity. At the same time, the narrative of secularism poses religion as its antithesis, which brings dogmatism, fundamentalism, and violence. In this project, I read secularism closely in various contexts from a gender and sexuality perspective and question the assumption that secularism always provides a progress for gender equality, whereas religion always produces inequality and oppression. To open up new ways of understanding secularism and gender, I firstly question the so-called universality of secularism by addressing the European origin of secularism and the concept of religion. Then, I address the diversity of secular and religious experiences which reconstruct each other in various contexts. Finally, I argue that the embodiment of secular or religious in terms of gender, sexuality and family is an important matter for the understanding of the division between religious and secular.
Keywords
Kaynakça
- Anderson, B. (1983). Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso.
- Asad, T. (2003). Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.
- Badran, M. (2013). Gendering the Secular and Religious in Modern Egypt: Woman, Family, and Nation. In L.E. Cady & T. Fessenden (Ed.), Religion, The Secular, and the Politics of Sexual Difference. (pp. 103-120). New York: Colombia University Press.
- Baird, RJ. (2008). Late secularism. In J.R. Jakobsen & A. Pellegrini (Ed.), Secularisms (pp. 162-177). Durham: Duke University Press.
- Berger, PL. (2008). Secularization falsified. First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life, 180 (2008), pp. 23-27.
- Butler, J. (2008). Gender trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge.
- Cady, L.& T. Fessenden. (2013). Gendering the Divide: Religion, the Secular, and the Politics of Sexual Difference. In L.E. Cady & T. Fessenden (Ed.), Religion, The Secular, and the Politics of Sexual Difference. (pp. 3-24). New York: Colombia University Press.
- Fernando, M. (2010). Reconfiguring Freedom: Muslim Piety and the Limits of Secular Public Discourse and law. American Ethnologist, 37 (2010), pp. 19-35. Jakobsen, JR. and Ann P. (2008). Introduction: Times Like These. In J.R. Jakobsen & A. Pellegrini (Ed.), Secularisms (pp. 1-35). Durham: Duke University Press.
- Smith, JZ. (2004). Relating Religion: Essays in the Study of Religion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- Karam, A. (2013). Must It Be Either Secular or Religious? Reflections on the Contemporary Journeys of Women’s Rights Acivities in Egypt. In L.E. Cady & T. Fessenden (Ed.), Religion, The Secular, and the Politics of Sexual Difference. (pp. 59-68). New York: Colombia University Press.