God’s Feminine Shadow: Fatema Mernissi’s Political Theology of Territory

Abstract

Abstract At the close of the Cold War, the Moroccan feminist Fatema Mernissi joined intellectuals from around the world in analyzing the place of religion, culture, and civilization in the “new world order.” This article analyzes how Mernissi developed psychoanalytic, sexual difference feminism from within Muslim sources to critique this emergent form of territoriality. It shows how she attacked Muslim states, particularly Morocco, for appropriating premodern Muslim political theology to narrate their sovereignties in a world dominated by US-led militarism and neoliberalism. Then, it demonstrates how she used female figures, including the pre-Islamic goddess al-ʿUzza and the Moroccan spirit Haguza, to reveal how sexual difference would undermine exclusive claims to territorial sovereignty. Finally, it turns to Jonathan Z. Smith’s rejoinder to Mircea Eliade. Mernissi’s theory helps us to understand that Smith identified an important relationship between religion and territory but in a way that was androcentric and culturally specific.