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Refashioning Islam: Elite women and piety in Bangladesh

Article  in  Contemporary Islam · March 2008

DOI: 10.1007/s11562-007-0029-4

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Cont Islam (2008) 2:7–22
DOI 10.1007/s11562-007-0029-4

Refashioning Islam: elite women and piety

in Bangladesh

Samia Huq & Sabina Faiz Rashid

Published online: 8 February 2008

# Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2007

Abstract This paper attempts to explore the development of Islamic identity of a

group of elite women in Dhaka, Bangladesh. These women constitute a significant
group in the country where 10% of the rich control 40% of the national wealth, and
the 10% of the poorest control 1.84% of the national wealth.* Socially, politically
and economically, elite women and their families are powerful and have access to
resources and political influence. Many of these women who did not grow up with a
very strict religious orientation came to Islam and consolidated religious thoughts
and practices through a weekly Quran reading class. This particular Quran class
began in 2002. The classes were initiated by a foreign diplomat’s wife who was
Muslim, and have continued even after her departure from the country in 2004.
While Dhaka houses many meetings of Muslim men and women to discuss Islamic
ideas and practices, this particular class was quite unique in its ability to attract and
convert elite women whose lives were seemingly perfect. This urban elite
phenomenon of Islamic revivalism has not been the subject of any in-depth research
in Bangladesh, and this work therefore, is the first of its kind and largely
introductory.

Keywords Elite women . Piety . Islamic revivalism . Quran classes . Bangladesh

*Verbal Communication, March 2007 with Barrister Harun-ur Rashid, former retired Diplomat and weekly
columnist for Daily Star (leading English Language) newspaper in Bangladesh.
S. Huq
Independent University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
e-mail: samia_huq@hotmail.com

S. F. Rashid (*)
BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
e-mail: sabina@bracuniversity.ac.bd
8 Cont Islam (2008) 2:7–22

Introduction

This paper examines the central role played by the revival of Islam, propagated by a
Quran reading class in converting existing and familiar spaces in which they found
the voice to articulate and express agency, which prior to the Islamic awakening, was
missing from their lives. The paper further looks into how everyday constructs have
been reworked to fit in with the perceived appropriate roles and responsibilities of
pious and Islamic women. Elite women who attend these classes adhere to a literal
translation of the Quran and the Sahih Hadith1 literature documented between the
9th and 10th centuries A.D. They look to Islam as a code and guide for everyday life
and embrace certain norms of religious conduct2. The women draw upon a literal
translation of the Quran and a strict adherence to the sayings and actions of the
Prophet Muhammad known as the Hadith documented almost two centuries after the
Prophet’s death. The women’s understandings reinforce traditional gender roles,
while they also carve out spaces of independence and authority for themselves, albeit
never at the cost of threatening the marital and nuclear family. Women view
themselves as modern women, who are committed to remoulding self, family and
community in order to ensure a more prominent and visible Islam in personal and
public life.

Methodology

The research method was qualitative, open ended interviews with a checklist of
questions, which served as a guide. Altogether, fourteen interviews were conducted
with affluent women, and in two cases daughters were interviewed as well. The
interviews which took place over a period of three months, from February – May
2007, lasted from two to three hours and usually took place in the respondents’
home. The women from the upper class group were selected purposively – from
personal contacts. Informed consent was taken from all participants.
The lead author of this paper was also attending these classes till 2004. Her
insights as a participant and as an observer facilitated not only easy access to most of

1
Hadith consists of the sayings and actions of the Prophet Muhammad as well as those actions and
sayings of others to which he lent tacit approval. The first written collection of hadith by Bukhari and
Muslim came out in the 9th century AD. Since then five more collections by different scholars have come
out and together these six collections are considered to be the most authentic accounts of the Prophet’s life
and works.
2
Although the Quran and Sunna of the Prophet remain normative for most Muslims, questions of
interpretation, authenticity and application have become contentious items. Although the example of the
Prophet Muhammad has always been the normative in Islam, from earliest times Muslim scholars saw the
need to critically examine and authenticate the enormous number of hadith (Prophetic traditions) to
distinguish between authoritative texts and pious fabrications. In the 20th century a sector of modern
Western scholarship questioned the historicity and authenticity of the hadith, maintaining the bulk of the
Prophetic traditions were written much later. Many ulama continue to unquestioningly accept the
authoritative collections of the past; other Muslim scholars have in fact become more critical in their
approaches and uses of Hadith literature (Esposito 2000).
Cont Islam (2008) 2:7–22 9

the respondents, but also enriched greatly the analysis of the data collected. As an
ex-member of the Quran class, the lead author was familiar with the arguments and
understandings that informed many of the women’s beliefs and practices.
All the women interviewed as a part of this research live in the wealthiest and
most expensive part of Dhaka city. All barring three are married with young to
adolescent children. The age of the married women ranges between 35–48 years. Of
the fourteen adult women interviewed, seven women work as professionals in the
fields of education and architecture. Two of the women are involved in the
husbands’ retail and garment manufacturing businesses, while two others run a very
successful clothing business of their own. Only one informant is a full time mother
and home maker. The young girls are all middle school and high school students. Of
the adult women, all have independent sources of income, which they have rights to
use and dispose.

Findings

The class

The Quran class began in April 2002 with a handful of women. The class was to be
conducted in English, and by default, was exclusive to women of certain socio-
economic categories who had had the education and exposure to follow a class
conducted in English. The size of the weekly classes grew rapidly and at its peak of
the two and a half year tenure, it housed up to over forty women. The Quran class
would meet once a week for 2 to 2.5 h. While the participants were free to bring
along with them any translation of the Quran they liked, the teacher as well as
majority of the participants followed the translation and explanations offered by
Maulana S. Abul Ala Maududi3 in his “The Meaning of the Quran”.
A year and a half after the Quran classes began, a second weekly class of Hadith
was started. In addition to the weekly Quran and Hadith classes, once a month, the
participants would meet at the house of any volunteering participant to hear a lecture
of any topic pertaining to the practice of faith, the correct male–female relations in
religion, explication of a certain chapter of the Quran etc. These lecture sessions
would often include close friends and family members of the host participant who
were not members of the weekly classes. Last but not least, the weekly classes would
meet daily for a solid 3 to 4 h in Ramadan (month of fasting) when the translation
and explication of the entire Quran was completed within the 30 days of Ramadan.
In addition to meeting daily, the class would meet at three odd nights of the last
10 days of Ramadan to commemorate the birth of the Quran and to offer special
prayers.

3
Maulana Maududi (1903–1979) was one of the chief architects of contemporary Islamic resurgence. He
devoted most of his productive years to writing about Islamic ideology and practice and advocated the
establishing of organized Islamic order. In 1941 he founded Jamaat-e-Islami of which he remained chief
until 1972.
10 Cont Islam (2008) 2:7–22

The discussions in the classes advocated a return to what was believed to be the
purest and most undiluted form of Islam by adhering to a strict and literal translation
of the Quran and a subscription to the “sahih” (authentic) Hadith literature which
was documented between the 9th and the 10th centuries AD. The Hadith literature
had a near divine status for these women as it represented the only window into the
Prophet Muhammad’s life, and therefore functioned as the logical, indispensable
supplement that elaborated on the short and often esoteric commands of the Quran.
In the class debates were usually kept to a minimum and any dissent regarding
lectures and preaching were discouraged. Widespread alcohol use, gambling, the
frequenting of parties, nightclubs, music etc, as well a banking and financing system
that predicates itself on the giving and taking of interest which was considered to be
a great breach of Quranic commands, were all posited as Western, and therefore had
to be shunned and discarded in order to return to a pure Islam free of western
“corruptions”. The Quran class also served as a place for women to become closer,
build new friendships and share personal and social problems, albeit more of the
former than the latter, privately with the leader/teacher of the class.

The class participants

All the women interviewed were born to Muslim parents with secular education.
Most of the women grew up in households where religion was relegated to rituals
such as prayers (perhaps not by all members and perhaps not five times a day), rites
at births, marriages and deaths, fasting and festivals that include Eid. Most of the
women said that before they found Islam in the Quran classes, they perceived no
contradiction between the separation of religious observances and the mundane
events of everyday life such as education, mixing with friends, courtship and
marriage, all of which were independent of religious considerations.
Within this context of “duality without contradiction”, different women were
drawn to rediscovering the religion they were born into for different reasons. One
woman explained, “My husband always wanted me to be more religious, you know
cover my hair and become more serious about my faith. After my child was born I
felt it was important for me to understand my religion and not remain ignorant”.
Some of the women believed that there was a lack of depth in their Islamic practices
and beliefs because of the ignorance of Arabic, and one woman said, “My husband
and I had decided that unlike us, our children were going to know their religion. So,
while ritual practices were going to be taught, we wanted them to understand the
source of these practices and observances – the Quran”. Another woman remarked,
“I wanted to understand what I was saying and decided to start reading parts of the
Quran in English with my children.’
For another, religious consciousness was heightened by time spent living and
working with non-Muslims abroad. She said that many of the dualities of how she
lived her life did not appear natural to westerners looking in, such as “going to a bar
and at the same time praying”. She said, “They would ask me, aren’t you Muslim?
How come you drink?” Their inability to understand the lack of contradiction in the
duality made her wonder about the naturalness with which she was allowing the
dualities to exist in her life. She says, “I became regular in my prayers and started to
visit the mosque.
Cont Islam (2008) 2:7–22 11

The changes adopted

For the women, the class questioned the duality in their lives that separated the
religious from the mundane. In light of tawheed4, it made them question why the
remembrance of God did not touch every aspect of their existence. With the stress
for religion to be total, to encompass not only rites of passage and times of need and
crisis, but to provide a comprehensive code of conduct, the changes adopted by the
women were phrased in terms of an opposition between halal: all that is allowed and
prescribed, and haram: all that is forbidden in their religious as well non-religious
events.
All of the women interviewed have taken the hijab: a head covering, since starting
the classes. Hijab is by far the most significant and apparent change adopted by all
the Quran class women. Although neither mandatory nor a common religious
symbol taken up by women in Bangladesh, most of the elite women attending Quran
class strongly believe that veiling is a requirement in Islam and a marker of one’s
religiosity.
While covering their heads is the first change the women mentioned, for most of
the respondents the head covering came towards the end of their struggle in the way
of Islam. One woman said, “I wasn’t used to being covered in so many layers, with
so many different pieces. At first it was uncomfortable, and then gradually it started
to feel natural, and now five years later, I feel naked without it”.
While all the women claim to have taken the head covering without any
compulsion and solely for God’s pleasure, our observations point to subtle forms of
peer pressure many women experienced and internalized. For example, often when
eating in restaurants in the company of other hijab clad women, many non head
covering women would also cover their heads loosely. Once when a woman did not
cover, she was admonished for showing disrespect to the ways of her friends. Every
time a class member would take up the hijab, it was always announced in class and
praises were said out aloud. Often, women were also encouraged to share the
experiences that lead to the culmination of the religious journey which taking the
head covering represented.
Some of the women were keen to have their daughters emulate the hijab practice,
but were anxious that many would choose not to. This issue weighed on their
conscience considerably. One of the respondents shared her disappointment because
her daughter, who had previously worn the hijab for one year, had recently stopped
wearing it. She said, “Of course I was upset and I knew she was testing me but I
didn’t say anything because my husband said, don’t say anything let her come back
to Islam on her own. She will find her way back!”
Women have explained how taking the Hijab has automatically led to changes in
social behavior. Their new style of clothing endows them with the responsibility of
speaking, interacting in a modest and soft manner.

4
The doctrine of tawheed is considered to be at the heart of Islamic theology. Tawheed refers to the
oneness of God. The significance of Tawheed for everyday life is that God’s unity is expected to permeate
over every aspect of existence.
12 Cont Islam (2008) 2:7–22

They are more conscious of who they are mixing with and who they are seen
with. A young girl of 18 commented, “I can’t be wearing Islam, and be loud and
obnoxious (in public)”. The women also claim to have become more aware of
segregation. Many of the informants now organize only segregated gatherings in
their homes and prefer to go to events that are segregated. In cases where women
do not maintain segregation, they say that they prefer to maintain a distance from
men by no longer kissing or embracing men while greeting them and by refusing
to shake their hands. In class the issue of how to deal with men who greet with a
handshake or an embrace or a peck on the cheeks came up several times, and the
agreed upon method was a clear statement that as believing, practicing, covering
Muslim women they cannot come into any kind of physical contact with men. One
woman said, “We have many good friends in the expatriate, diplomatic
community. I have had to gather the courage to refuse shaking the men’s hands.
Offering an explanation and getting them to understand why I won’t, has been
more of the challenge. I’ve decided that I won’t even go into explanations
anymore. I will simply say that my religion forbids me, and it is my duty to obey.
If westerners can push for their cultural ways, why do WE need to be so
apologetic about ours?”
The younger (teen aged informants) say that they still have male friends and still
“hang out” with them but try to avoid situations where they are alone with boys.
Elite women whose children were studying in co-education international schools
struggled with the free-mixing of the sexes in school. For example, one informant
who found her 16-year-old son working on a school project with his female friends
in his bedroom, prohibited female friends from entering the bedroom regardless of
the cause behind it. She said, “I am aware that he will have female associates, and
they can come to my home as my son can go to theirs. But they should not be in the
bedroom together- neither his nor theirs”. For another informant the limit was set
before proms and other similar school socials. For another, the limit was placed
before a school trip to another city. She said, “I made it very clear that she was not to
spend nights with boys even if they were going to be in different sleeping quarters.
My daughter resented it then, but understands now” (after both of their religious
awakening).
One of the rhetorical assertions was that covering ones hair and homogenizing
clothes has the positive effect of allowing a woman to be perceived by others not by
her appearance but her inner qualities. One woman remarked, “It’s so much nicer not
having to worry about whether my clothes represent the right trends, or whether my
hair is blow dried properly”. Another woman remarked, “Wearing the Hijab makes
me feel really special. I feel, finally, I can tell the world, look it’s not about clothes,
and jewels. It’s about the fact that I have a mind and I think”. A third woman had
remarked, “I feel that through Islam I am really part of a sisterhood, where even how
we dress is about an ideology, and not about the superficial stuff that our lives are so
full of”.
All of the informants said that they have become meticulous in observing the five
pillars of Islam, which are the declaration of faith, the daily five time prayers,
fasting, mandatory charity and Hajj. While a few still struggle with maintaining
punctuality for the prayer at dawn, they are aware that it is a failure on their part, and
harbor feelings of guilt as a result of it. Most of these women admitted that they
Cont Islam (2008) 2:7–22 13

would give zakat5 (charity) in the past but it was not well enough informed and not
based on as meticulous and accurate calculations. Other than zakat, women said that
since their awareness of Islam, they try to give charity much more than they used to.
One woman said that she does charity twenty times as much as she used to.
Many have gone on Hajj. Many perform Umrah6 regularly. Hajj is mandatory for
all financially able and physically capable adults. The women see it as a duty which
needs to be fulfilled as soon as they meet the conditions for it. Umrah is not
considered mandatory. However, the frequency with which they perform it has
increased many times. One woman remarked, “I feel guilty that I travel to Europe
and America for holidays but do not think of making a trip (with my family) to visit
God’s house and pay my respects to Him.”
All the women interviewed claimed to be attempting their best to keep away from
haram. For many, alcohol figured most prominently in their discussions. While all
the women have stopped consuming alcoholic beverages, even if they were only
occasional drinkers, some have managed to stop their husbands from drinking and
moving alcohol out of the house. For a few others getting the husbands to come
around is still a source of tension. All the women said that they would rather not go
to events where alcohol is served and consumed, but none of the women actually
stop themselves from going. All the women say that while they would like to eat
only halal7 meat when they travel, a few admit to not being able to resist a good
steak while traveling abroad.
In addition to subscribing to distinctions of halal and haram with reference to food
and drink, made explicit by the Quran, these women problematize other features of
their lives in reference to interpretations of the Quran and the Hadith. One such
contentious issue is music. Music and all musical instruments are considered to be
forbidden. Many of the women have consciously left practicing or listening to
music, while others say that with their new ritual demands of prayer and fasting they
simply do not have the time for music. One informant was a classical singer and had
trained professionally with a maestro for thirteen years. She says, “Singing was my
passion. It was my piece of heaven and when I sang I felt like I was carried away to
another world, a better place”. Other than giving her psychological peace, singing
also gave her recognition amongst her family and friends. Her talent marked her out
from the rest of the crowd. Although she never sang professionally, she would often
sing for a gathering of friends. Her husband was very proud of her singing. She
narrated, “One of my biggest concerns when I left singing was how my husband
would take it. He not only loved to hear me sing, he also liked to show off my talent
to our friends. One day when I refused to sing in a gathering, he was fuming with
anger. When we came home he brought the harmonium to our room and insisted that
I sing right then and there. I was quite intimidated, but good sense prevailed and I
brought down the verse from the Quran and the Bukhari containing the hadith

5
Zakat is a mandatory charity to be given throughout the year to other Muslims. Zakat is deducted at the
rate of 2.5% on all the gold, silver and idle cash owned.
6
Umrah refers to a visit to the Kabah in Mecca. It consists of the circumambulatory rites around the
Kabah as well the rites between mounts Safa and Marwah. There is no specified time for the performance
of Umrah. It is not mandatory.
7
Halal consists of everything that has been allowed by the commands of the Quran.
14 Cont Islam (2008) 2:7–22

forbidding singing and Alhamdulillah (thank God) he backed off. He now supports
my not singing anymore. See, if you use God’s words, He always finds solutions for
difficulties”. The fact that children of some of these women are not ready to live in a
world devoid of music, cds and concerts is a sore issue for them as mothers. One
woman remarked, “I keep warning him (her son). I have to. It is my duty to save
him”.
The distinctions of haram and halal give new meaning to rituals. While rituals that
fall within the purview of the five pillars are not only halal, but mandatory, certain
other rituals which are performed under the banner of Islam are considered haram
and to be strictly avoided. For example, milads (praying and sending salutations to
the prophet) is a common religious practice which commemorates deaths, births and
other auspicious events, and is considered an innovated practice and therefore a sin
by the Quran class informants. Going to Pirs8, becoming a disciple of a Sufi saint is
unacceptable. Having a Qul Khani, a religious gathering held on the third day after
death which consists of prayers and salutations sung to the Prophet Muhammad as
well as discussions from the Quran on death and the afterlife and commemorating
death anniversaries are all considered unacceptable.
Special prayers for Shab-e-barat9, the Prophet’s birthday are unacceptable. Many
of these rituals and practices were very much a part of their religious repertoire prior
to their Islamic rebirth. However, these practices of the past are now considered to be
uninformed, unenlightened, and misguided as Sahih Hadith10 literature does not
detail them. Thus, by the demerit of not having been prophetic practices, these rituals
of the past are considered to be innovations and therefore causes of great sin. The
notion of innovation as sin permeates into certain secular spheres as well. For
example, it is believed that birthdays were not observed or remembered during the
Prophet Muhammad’s time. Celebrating birthdays is considered to be a Christian
tradition that began a few hundred years after the death of Christ. Thus, refraining
from the observance and celebration of birthdays is considered to be an act of piety
as such severing endows Islam and how it is lived with parameters that set it sharply
apart from other faiths. Most of the women subscribe to the notion of birthdays as
innovation and therefore problematic, however, a few still hold some kind of a
celebration. One woman remarked, “It’s okay to go out to dinner with the family or
have a few close friends over, but huge celebrations with wine flowing like water are
obnoxious, and so unnecessary”. Another woman remarked, “Celebrating birthdays

8
Pir is a religious guide and mentor from Sufi traditions. While many people go to Pirs to attain divine
knowledge, many others go to them for special purposes and solutions to difficulties such as financial
hardship, inability to find a suitor, problematic marriages, interfering in-laws, infertility etc. As solutions
pirs often give special prayers to perform and recite. They also give charms and amulets to wear, as well as
blessed water to drink.
9
Shab-e-barat is observed on the 15th night of the 8th lunar month. It is considered by many to be a night
when destiny is written. The night is used to pray and remember the dead. Many go to visit graves of near
and dear ones. The night is marked with much festivity through illuminations and fire crackers. Women
make traditional sweets and distribute amongst friends, family and neighbors as well as to the poor lined
up outside of brightly lit mosques.
10
The class members subscribe to all the hadith collected in the “authentic six” volumes that appeared
between the 9th and 10th centuries AD. The Hadith are considered to be applicable literally in today’s
contexts as well. In other words, the contents of these collections are accepted and applied without
consideration to historical, temporal and cultural factors responsible for them.
Cont Islam (2008) 2:7–22 15

is all about ME and nothing else. It’s not important when I was born. What is
important is that I was born and the fact that I have been put on this earth gives me
certain responsibilities”. The same informant conceded to her brother and sister in
law throwing a big first birthday bash for their son, but she refrained from cutting the
cake at her nephew’s first birthday.
Boundaries separating Islam from other faiths are also consolidated through
discarding adornments such as the bindi, which is traditionally a marker for marriage
amongst Hindus and also worn by many non-Muslims as decoration. One woman
says, “My dressing up was never complete without bindis. I have them in all shapes
and colors. I even had ones made of semi precious gems. Then one day I got
together with a friend and burnt them all, and felt very relieved and renewed for it”.
Certain kinds of art are also considered to draw a dividing line between belief and
disbelief. For example, any kind of art which depicts any living form is considered a
great sin as these women believe that form which takes life can only be God’s work
and therefore the artist’s creation is tantamount to usurping God’s role. Many of the
women interviewed have struggled with keeping and removing paintings and
sculptures from their immaculately decorated homes.
Wealth is not an issue that women subject to the distinctions of haram and halal.
However, the ideals and examples of the Prophet Muhammad’s lives which they feel
they must live by represent an austere lifestyle which gives many of the women a
certain malaise about the opulence their own lifestyles represent. Some have said
that the amount of food prepared and served and the money spent on it at gatherings
these women have in their homes makes them uncomfortable. While a few claim that
they deal with this malaise by actually spending less, others say that they find
comfort in the knowledge that their wealth is a blessing from God and they must use
it in the cause of Allah: by opening up their homes for gatherings that discuss the
Quran and Hadith, by spending on charity and prohibiting things discouraged in
Islam etc.
The desire to consume is to be kept in check where such desire does not take over
one’s being. One informant said, “I may still buy a gold bangle (worth US$5000) if I
really like it, but now I stop to think whether I really need it”.
Others struggle with wanting to purchase jewelry or items they covet and justify
it. For example, reacting to a criticism by a class member one woman remarked,
“Okay, so I have a lot of jewelry and I like to wear it. So what if that is my folly. As
long as I am not obsessed with it, why does it have to come between me and God,
and why am I answerable to anyone for it?”
The need to do dawa: to invite others to the ways of Islam is an important change
that marks the new lives lived by the women. While the primary definition of dawa
has been of preaching and spreading God’s word and community (calling all to the
‘the straight path’ of Islam) it has also included the call to Muslims to return to
Islam, to become more religiously observant (Esposito 2000). In the last few months
of 2007, a group of women attending Quran class have decided that the time has
arrived for them to move beyond attending classes and listening to lectures. One
woman said, “We have been researching and listening to what to do for many years.
It’s time to do more, to spread the message around. Without bringing others into the
fold, we really are not fulfilling our obligations as God’s representatives on earth.” A
group of 16 women have now started a weekly class where they are teaching
16 Cont Islam (2008) 2:7–22

themselves to explain and teach the verses of the Quran to others. At the end of this
training, it is hoped that all sixteen will be able to hold classes of their own. Thus,
the work to expand the network of teachers and followers with the ultimate aim of
“spreading the word of God” is very much in progress.

Discussion

Redefining self and family

The changes made and new ways adopted cuts the women off sharply from their
pasts. The religious experiences of the past were considered to be “selective and
convenient”. One woman remarked, “I used to use religion to my convenience, when
there was something going wrong, or when I really needed or wanted something.”
Their lives, devoid of the current religious zeal, were characterized as ordinary,
where they were “going with the flow”, doing what everyone else was doing. A lot
of these women considered themselves to be leading “modern” lives. One woman
remarked, “For me being modern meant going to parties, to balls, and having parties
where everyone drank”. Another woman remarked, “before being modern meant
going to a party in skimpy clothes, holding a glass of wine in one’s hand and maybe
sitting on a man’s lap and laughing and joking. Being modern was all about
appearances.”
The increased knowledge and the feeling of certainty of being rightly guided have
given them the courage and confidence to become agents of their own lives without
the worry of other peoples’ opinions of them. The new found agency for many of the
women, allowed them to break with past habits and practices and assert their new
ways in the context of their families and larger social surroundings. Many have been
successful at “converting” husbands and near and dear ones. One informant, over the
course of two years, got her husband to stop drinking and serving alcohol and threw
three lac’s (US$5000) worth down the drain. She has been able to motivate her
husband to start saying his prayers, and they have performed Hajj. Her husband has
switched to Islamic banking. Other than these changes in practice, she says that her
husband actually looks up to her for religious advice and guidance. While this is
clearly a success story, many other informants have also moved alcohol from the
house, and made husbands more aware of the dos and don’ts of an Islamic way of
life. In a few cases where husbands have not come around at all, the women take
refuge in their new found conviction and certainty. They feel that they have fulfilled
their obligation by warning their spouse of the dangers of drinking and other habits
condemned by their faith, and that they will not be accountable for their husbands’
failure to pay heed. Whether their husbands have changed or not, these women have
found the strength not to be swayed by them. Thus, this independence is a marked
change from the attitude they espoused in the past. Whether tangible changes occur
or not, the women do not carry the burden of heir husbands’ “sins” nor do they
assume the role of victim as a result of their “failure to bring about changes in their
husbands’ thoughts and practices.
The newly discovered psychological autonomy and agency were employed to
assert their sexuality and sexual needs as wives. Often a contentious issue in
Cont Islam (2008) 2:7–22 17

marriages, women have traditionally been trained not to talk freely about their sexual
needs. The interpretation of Islamic texts the women subscribe to informs them that
sex is an important right ascribed to them by God, that it is every man’s duty to
fulfill his wife materially, physically and emotionally, and that he is rewarded or
reprimanded by God for the fulfillment or breaching of such obligation. These ideals
enabled some of the women interviewed to discuss their lack of sexual fulfillment.
Although intimidating at first, as a result of the knowledge that sexual desire is
neither shameful nor relegated to the male domain, two of the informants learnt to
express their needs without feeling a sense of shame. In the class, it was often said
that if a husband and wife have not had any relations for four months without
reasons of physical illness or separation, and either party is vexed by it, the lack of
intimacy is sufficient grounds for divorce. Such rhetoric which naturalized divorce
and remarriage, stripping them of the accompanying cultural stigma, were used by
the women as empowering tools in addressing contentious realms in their own
marriages. However, such empowerment was used rather to strengthen than severe
the marital ties. The option of divorce faded out in the face of the need to fulfill roles
that gained new spirit, accorded with divine guidance11.
In the case of a disenchanted marriage, a woman felt that her knowledge of Islam
gave her a new perspective on the roles and rights and duties of men and women in
religion and this gave her some level of psychological leverage. Women believed
that men are their keepers and women take care of the home: the nature/culture
distinction. While emotional connection was missing between her and her husband,
she took comfort in the fact that she and her husband were playing the “correct”
roles, and as a result of that her husband deserved some privileges she was not
allowing him. She says, “Islam has given me a level playing field in my marriage. It
made me appreciate the things my husband does do and lessened my ego”. In other
words, through Islam she has learnt to accept and de-prioritize the emotional
disconnect and find some stability through a sense of accomplishment of having
fulfilled her practical responsibilities as well as a new found appreciation for her
husband’s role in meeting the practical necessities of the family. Being on the same
plateau in practical matters eases her malaise about the unequal emotional needs of
the two individuals. She says that prior to finding Islam, feelings of hopelessness
made her, at times, want to leave her husband. However, with the “correct”
perspective on the “expected” and “natural” roles of man and wife, she understands
that the marriage does not warrant a divorce.

11
Amongst the poor in Bangladesh, patriarchy and laws ensure that the support remains tilted in favor of
males regarding marriage, custody of children and inheritance laws. Within the household and through
local decision-making and legal bodies (e.g. samaj and shalish), men exercise control over women, their
sexuality, their choice of marriage partner, their access to labor and other markets and their income and
assets. In most cases, women’s access to social, economic and political and legal institutions is mediated
by men. They are dependent on men throughout their lives, from fathers, through husbands to sons
(Baden, S et al. 1994). Amongst the elite, while Islamic understanding provided the women with a more
empowered mental makeover no marriages actually came to an end. While the issue warrants systematic
investigation which was beyond the scope of the current paper, it is plausible that the general socio–
cultural–economic framework which applies for the rest of the country and generates the rather grim
realities the average woman faces in the event that her marriage comes to an end may function as a barrier
between marital unhappiness and divorce amongst the elite too.
18 Cont Islam (2008) 2:7–22

The women believe in having large families. Although the maximum number of
children does not exceed three per woman, most women said that they would have
more children if their age permitted it. One woman said, “Before I used to think that
after two or three children, my family would be complete. The notion of a complete
family is a western one which we have adopted. Our forefathers who were more
Islamic had many more children believing that every child brings his/her own rizk12.
Who knows which child will enrich who in what way? Aren’t we limiting God’s
blessings (to income and livelihood) by imposing a limit on the number of children
we have?” She added that in planning a fourth child her intention is to “raise the
child in Islam and to give him for the spread on Islam”. She said, “I know this may
sound bad but if I do have another child, I would want a son so that he can become a
scholar and propagate Islam. She continues, “of course a daughter can become a
scholar too, but we know that she can’t address a mixed gathering”.
Another woman said, “as a mother Islam accords us three times more respect than
the father, so can you imagine our reward if we can raise children to be scholars of
Islam?” Another woman lamented not having reared her children in Islam, who were
already in or close to their teens when the mothers’ Islamic resurgence occurred. The
mothers of children under the age of 10 said that regardless of the sex of the child, it
was much easier to instill disciplines of praying and fasting and getting them to do
what is “good” and refrain from the “haram” (sinning). Where they were having
difficulty (with children in their teens and above most of who were male), as mothers
they did not despair as they felt that preaching Islam – advocating the dos and don’ts
was a duty which if fulfilled would not let them down in the long run. Through the
knowledge of religion they had attained, they had found a new meaning to
motherhood and a parenting guide that reassured them of success.
Many of these women had managed to influence friends to break with their past
“ignorant” ways and adopt practices that were in accordance with Islamic teachings.
In cases where friends had not changed, the women were steadfast in their ways and
let it be known that their resolve could not be broken or the changes adopted altered
as a result of their friendship/ association with people who did not ‘come their way.’
Many friendships between these women who had changed and those who had not
had remained and continued, but the women interviewed felt the stronger of the two.
The women interviewed said that they would continue to preach to their friends,
directly or indirectly in the hope that they would come around. A few of the women
said that they try to keep away from non-Muslim friends, while some others say that
their friendship with non-Muslims have remained, but now they try to talk about
their religion and how beliefs translate into practices with them. One of the
respondents who in the past used to attend Hindu and Christian festivals stopped
because of their new found beliefs in Islam. She said, “While I have remained
friends with them, I cannot attend their religious festivals because I know they are
not on the right path…they understand and don’t insist”.

12
Rizk is understood to mean livelihood. The women believe that everyone brings their own capacity to
earn a living. Thus, as parents to worry about how to provide for a child is unwarranted as that child’s
capacity to earn a livelihood comes from God.
Cont Islam (2008) 2:7–22 19

Redefining community/society

Religious awakening has led to a new understanding of the self that is seemingly
autonomous of the ways of its surroundings, a self that is endowed with the
knowledge and guidance to exert influence and agency which give them a new sense
of empowerment. Mediated through changes in the self, the immediate arena of
influence is the family and close networks of friends. In the family, women try to
influence husbands. Also, by raising children to be Islamic and perhaps even
scholars, the women would engage their domestic roles and the domestic arena to
reach out to the wider society.
The idea that the “family is the microcosm of society” works as a catalyst to
provide the women with a sense of accomplishment of influencing the society at
large. Branching out beyond the parameters of the family and networks of friends is
accomplished through the dawa work, which most women felt extremely passionate
about.
Three of the women interviewed are actively involved in dawa work, while a few
others hope to do it sometime soon. All the women interviewed believe that it is
every practicing woman’s duty to do dawa: invite people to understand and adopt the
ways of Islam. One woman says, “I now have knowledge that translates into every
action of my being, and these actions give me a certainty that Allah loves me…It is a
beautiful feeling in my heart…If HE didn’t love me, I wouldn’t have the honor of
walking into a room and people listening to me – Me! ME! – this little chit! Why
would people listen to me? I was never before considered knowledgeable or ever
intellectual enough for people to take me seriously, and look up to me in matters that
affected their lives. If I have knowledge, Allah’s love, nearness through which I have
people’s respect, how can I not give people the good news and warn them of the
dangers of the afterlife. Not doing so would make me selfish”. Another woman
stated, “Dawa is extremely important if we want to make the world a better place. A
better world would be one in which there was Dar-ul-Islam (a world with less
poverty, no corruption)”.
Thus, the dawa work these women are or plan to be engaged in is accomplished
through changes attempted and/or made to the ego. It is through dawa they have a
reach to the larger society where they are able to extend their influence through
religious knowledge and “divine guidance”. The agency they are able to assert
within the context of their families and network of close friends gives them new
confidence with which they are able to reach out beyond familiar frontiers. The self-
confidence, the agency makes the women proactive and places them in a position of
authority in new and old arenas. The women feel armored with new respectability.
They perceive themselves to be more honorable in the eyes of the others, while
simultaneously being agents at changing society.

Conclusion

For the women who attend Quran class, being Islamic means going back to what is
considered by them to be Islam’s original sources: the Quran and the Hadith, and to
reinterpret and reapply them to contemporary society. They attribute weakness of the
20 Cont Islam (2008) 2:7–22

Islamic world and their lives to the Westernization of Muslim societies and its
foreign, ‘un-Islamic ideas, values and practices (see for similar discussion Esposito
2000). But the changes incorporated in personal and social lives make the women
more modern in their own language, a modernity that is non-western, better
informed, better thought out, chosen as opposed to followed, and divinely and not
socially guided.
Suzanne Brenner’s study of veiling in Java conjures up a similar image of
modernity. She writes that while a break from the past is one of the characteristic
features of modernity as conceptualized in the west, western notions refer to
modernity as a break and progress based on secular principles. For the veiling
women in Java, modernity is reflected through break and progress through
deepening religiosity rather than an advancing secularization (1996: 674). Brenner
writes that the Islamic change is also to be brought through a rejection of a
westernized way of life, which for many lacks faith and is materialistic and self-
indulgent. The Islamic movement offers its followers an alternative modernity.
Instead of retreating to “traditional” ways, one is encouraged to become part of a
modern, global community to fellow Muslims who imagine themselves to be united
in a shared set of beliefs and values and in their common resistance to non-Muslim
cultural, political and economic domination” (678)
The Javanese modernity has certain parallels to the modernity espoused by the
elite Bangladeshi women. They redefine themselves through a cut from the past, a
past where the sacred and the mundane were sharply distinguished from one another.
The ideology of change with deepening religiosity over secularism thus defines
modernity. The elite women’s modernity is considered to be non-western in its ideals
of modesty, absolute faith and non-traditional in its rejection of religious practices
that are tantamount to shirk, the most grievous sin and crime in Islam where
partnership is associated with God.
New found knowledge, the feeling of being divinely guided and introspection
provides the women with the ability to exercise agency in situations which they did
not contest (or felt ill-equipped to contest) in the past. The women’s agency provides
us with clues into the forces of power that are very much operative within the
system. Following Lila Abu-Lughod’s argument that resistance should be read as a
“diagnostic of power” (1990), the agency through which the elite women assert their
sexuality, their desire to have and educate children in a particular manner, their
opinions on rituals, on what is permissible and prohibited, represent their resistance
to forces of power inherent within the system. The ability to articulate sexuality, to
exert authority with husbands and other family members is an important
understanding not only for the light it sheds on the nature of resistance and the
spheres within which such resistance is localized, but also for an understanding of
shifting forces and (im)balance of power embedded within the larger framework.
However, contestation and agency have not altered the existing order of gender
relations. In the context of the poor women’s lives in Bangladesh patriarchy and the
cultural expectations of pardah and female honor ensure that women remain socially
and economically dependent on males, who are traditionally viewed as the authority
figures in the household and rice-winners for the family (Jesmin and Salway 2000).
The elite women subscribe to Maulana Maududi’s notions of gender relations which
gives men guardianship and custodianship over women as a result of his “natural
Cont Islam (2008) 2:7–22 21

qualities and woman has been made his dependent for her own safety and protection
because of her natural drawbacks” (2002: 333). For the women interviewed, man’s
superiority and woman’s dependence are translated into a strict division of labor
relegating women to the domestic sphere and men to the spheres outside of the
home, which nurtures and sustains the home financially.
The elite women’s idealized framework resembles the nature versus culture
dichotomy (Ortner 1996: 21–42). However, by virtue of the women’s belief that the
term respect is operative, the hierarchy is naturalized and apparently stripped of
power dynamics that may have felt problematic without the divine justification it is
accorded. The belief that such agency is a result of the Islamization of their
worldview and practices indicates that islamization has led to a shift in the forces of
power without compromising the larger system. For example, gender relations and
the gendered division of labor continue to be governed by the nature/culture
distinction, regardless of the rhetoric of the term respect. In fact, now, as a result of
the feeling of having attained a divine seal, women have become even more serious
about their domestic roles, considering those to be activities which make them
“God’s representative on Earth. They have redefined sexuality and motherhood
through a newly articulated agency, simultaneously reinterpreting and staying within
the bounds of their traditional roles. However, I would like to suggest that the
women’s relegation to the domestic sphere is neither a departure from the framework
of gender relations and gendered division of labor which subordinates the poor
women of Bangladesh, nor is it a departure from the affluent context is which their
lives are set. Amongst the poor, while the women, out of necessity, very much bring
in income for the upkeep of the household, their work is devalued and the output of
their labor is overshadowed by the importance placed on their domestic duties. The
preference for domestic chores over income generating activities is considered to
lead to dependence generated oppression (Ortner 1996: 21–41). Amongst the elite,
domesticity has divine connotations. The perception of the interviewed women is
that rather than oppressing them, playing domestic roles such as that of wife and
mother elevates them to greater heights of being13. The devaluation of extra
domestic, income generating activities is “natural” rather than “oppressive” and
“unfair”.
We would like to suggest that the naturalization of the lack of importance of
income is a result of the women’s financial affluence, which buys them social
immunity and the opportunity to stay home and perceive domestic roles as primary.
Without the financial support, the realities of their lives could not have adhered to
this ideological/normative framework. However, in cases where women, out of
choice, do not consider their domestic roles primary, they are looked at as deviant.
When a woman HAS to compromise her primary roles in order to provide for herself
and/or her family, it is because of injustices in her surroundings that have failed to
provide her with the cushioning that would have allowed her to focus on her primary
roles, and such a woman becomes the object of pity. Thus, the only framework that
is sanctioned is the normative. Anything outside of it is a failure of the individual
and the surrounding. The ideal framework cannot be widened to accommodate the

13
This needs to be systematically investigated.
22 Cont Islam (2008) 2:7–22

“deviants”, rather the onus is on the “deviants” in bringing their lives within the fold
of the normative. Thus, Islamic revival creates a space in which the ideology of
gendered relations produced through a gendered division of labor simultaneously
resembles the poorer segments of society as well as reproducing an economically
affluent and elite identity.
Elite women live and experience Islam through ideals some of which remain
abstract while some others are re-interpreted, justified and translated into practice.
They internalize much of the rhetoric and conceive many of the practices as tools
through which they feel more empowered and in greater control over their destinies.
They objectify their faith and give it form through the adoption of markers of Islamic
identity such as the veil, the absence of certain kinds of art in their homes etc. Such
markers are used to adopt and enforce certain behaviors and practices as they
reconstruct selves, family and the wider community. The women struggle with the
dilemmas and contradictions in maintaining their Islamic way of life but their new
found identity gives them greater clarity and a sense of certainty as they navigate
their way in this unpredictable world, where lifestyles are opulent and society is
viewed as decaying and polluted with immorality and loss of faith.

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