User:Cdockery44/Saba Mahmood

Saba Mahmood’s main topic of discussion in Politics of Piety, revolves around the premise of the Islamic revival and feminism, how they are intertwined and why some women continue to practice in structural aspects of their life that oppress them. She uses Foucault and Butler to show the truth to power dynamics and applies it to her studies of Islam. Focuault influenced her through his work of domination and subjectivity. Foucault also highlights his two theories of Discipline and Punish and how his ideas on power can also be viewed through the lens of gender. Butler influences her through her work of performance and how to act if subordination is a productive measure in creating more agency and also the dichotomy between vulnerability and feminism. This then shows her readers that resistance is not always the key to agency and how some women in Islam still participate in structures that create their oppression. Judith Butler also uses her book "The Precarious Life" to highlight how society needs to be based on vulnerability and loss to understand each other more. Butler draws her insights from Focuaults understanding of power and subjectivity and comes up with her own idea of challenging the idea that there is a prerepresentational sex. This ties in with Saba Mahmood's ideas that there is no universal truth to the oppressions of women and how we can not fight for the rights of a culture we can not understand.