A Most Masculine State
Gender, Politics and Religion in Saudi Arabia

This book goes beyond conventional tropes describing women in Saudi Arabia to probe the historical, political and religious forces thwarting their emancipation.

Madawi Al-Rasheed (Author)

9780521761048, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 15 March 2013

348 pages
23.1 x 15.7 x 2.3 cm, 0.64 kg

'What makes the book so rewarding and useful is, first, the thoughtful, richly detailed historical context it provides for understanding women's education, the regulations of women's bodies and sexuality, and the place of women in business relations in Saudi Arabia over the span of several decades. But Al-Rasheed is also very attentive to both the state-centered mythologizing and religious discourse-making that goes into the maintenance of gender relations, as well as the contestation over the boundaries of control … For now, her readers will be grateful for such a sympathetically critical guide to the way so many Saudi women live today.' Laleh Khalili, Women's Studies Quarterly

Women in Saudi Arabia are often described as either victims of patriarchal religion and society or successful survivors of discrimination imposed on them by others. Madawi Al-Rasheed's new book goes beyond these conventional tropes to probe the historical, political and religious forces that have, across the years, delayed and thwarted their emancipation. The book demonstrates how, under the patronage of the state and its religious nationalism, women have become hostage to contradictory political projects that on the one hand demand female piety, and on the other hand encourage modernity. Drawing on state documents, media sources and interviews with women from across Saudi society, the book examines the intersection between gender, religion and politics to explain these contradictions and to show that, despite these restraints, vibrant debates on the question of women are opening up as the struggle for recognition and equality finally gets under way.

Introduction: the 'woman question' in Saudi Arabia
1. From religious revival to religious nationalism
2. Schooling women: the state as benevolent educator
3. Symbols of piety: fatwa on women in the 1980s
4. The quest for cosmopolitan modernity
5. Women in search of themselves
6. Celebrity women novelists and the cosmopolitan fantasy
7. Guarding self and nation: women preachers and activists
Conclusion: light at the end of the tunnel.

Subject Areas: Religious & theocratic ideologies [JPFR], Political ideologies [JPF], Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], Anthropology [JHM], Islam [HRH]