Islamic Piety, Corporeality and Agency: Young Mappila Women’s Dissensus Over the Notion of Ideal <i>Muslimah</i> in Malabar

Abstract

Occupied with the discourse of legal reformation of the Muslim community since the Shah Bano controversy in 1978, statist narratives of liberating Muslim women from Muslim patriarchy are conspicuous in India. However, Muslim leaders propose internal reforms and expect women to be good mothers. This article analyses the role of traditional <i>ulema</i> in Kerala in shaping the corporeal notions of pious Mappila women. The study also analyses the contestations and multiple discourses among pious young Mappila women toward the <i>ulema</i>’s preaching. The findings of this study are framed through the concept of piety and the embodiment of ethical self by Saba Mahmood and Talal Asad’s notion of Islam as a discursive tradition. Semi-structured interviews, participant observation, digital ethnography with a sample of thirty respondents and secondary sources are the methods used. While the conception of an ethical self and piety among the pious elder Mappila women hinges on the respectful compliance of <i>ulema</i>’s preaching of the qualities of a ‘good <i>Muslimah</i>’, the pious young Mappila women focus on the deliberative aspects of discourses around ‘the good <i>Muslimah</i>’. This has opened up the possibilities of contestation, argumentation, and cross-checking references from the Islamic tradition to pursue a dignified and pious living.