TEORIA FEMINISTA, AGÊNCIA E SUJEITO LIBERATÓRIO: ALGUMAS REFLEXÕES SOBRE O REVIVALISMO ISLÂMICO NO EGIPTO

 

Saba Mahmood *

 

Este artigo defende uma separação entre a noção de agência e a de resistência como um passo necessário para pensar as formas de vontade e política que não se adequam às normas seculares e liberais feministas. Através de uma análise das práticas de um movimento pietista feminino, integrado no revivalismo islâmico no Egipto, este artigo sugere que a agência é melhor entendida através do paradoxo da subjectivação: um processo que não só assegura a subordinação do sujeito às relações de poder, mas também produz os meios através dos quais ele se transforma numa entidade autoconsciente e num agente. Nesta perspectiva, a agência não é simplesmente um sinónimo de resistência a relações de dominação, mas também uma capacidade para a acção facultada por relações de subordinação específicas.

PALAVRAS-CHAVE: agência, embodiment, feminismo, Islão, resistência, autonomia.

 

 

FEMINIST THEORY, AGENCY, AND THE LIBERATORY SUBJECT: SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE ISLAMIC REVIVAL IN EGYPT

This article argues for uncoupling the notion of agency from that of resistance as a necessary step in thinking about forms of desire and politics that do not accord with norms of secular-liberal feminism. Through an examination of the practices of women’s piety movement, part of the larger Islamic Revival in Egypt, this article suggests that agency is better understood through the paradox of subjectivation: a process that not only secures the subjects subordination to relations of power but is also the means by which she becomes a self-conscious identity and agent. Viewed in this way, agency is not simply a synonym for resistance to relations of domination, but a capacity for action that specific relations of subordination enable and create.

KEYWORDS: agency, embodiment, feminism, Islam, resistance, autonomy.

 

 

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* Saba Mahmood

Berkeley, USA

smahmood@berkeley.edu