Creative Conformity: The Feminist Politics of U.S. Catholic and Iranian Shi'i Women (Moral Traditions)

Much feminist scholarship has viewed Catholicism and Shi'i Islam as two religious traditions that, historically, have greeted feminist claims with skepticism or outright hostility. Creative Conformity demonstrates how certain liberal secular assumptions about these religious traditions are only partly correct and, more importantly, misleading. In this highly original study, Elizabeth Bucar compares the feminist politics of eleven US Catholic and Iranian Shi'i women and explores how these women contest and affirm clerical mandates in order to expand their roles within their religious communities and national politics. Using scriptural analysis and personal interviews, Creative Conformity demonstrates how women contribute to the production of ethical knowledge within both religious communities in order to expand what counts as feminist action, and to explain how religious authority creates an unintended diversity of moral belief and action. Bucar finds that the practices of Catholic and Shi'a women are not only determined by but also contribute to the ethical and political landscape in their respective religious communities. She challenges the orthodoxies of liberal feminist politics and, ultimately, strengthens feminism as a scholarly endeavor. -- Amazon.com Bucar (religious studies, U. of North Carolina-Greensboro) uses rhetorical analysis to examine similarities and differences in how Catholic women in the US and Shi'a women in Iran respond to the rulings of male leaders in religious communities that are known for their male chauvinist reputations. The book is based on interviews with 11 women in the US and Iran in 2004; these 'creative conformers' are public intellectuals in their local communities, who construct new rhetorical spaces in their response to Pope John Paul's and Khomeni's moral guidance. The author sees the study as an example of cross-cultural feminist politics, asking whether such a thing as cross-cultural feminist politics actually exists, and if so, how can it be studied in comparison without privileging one community's actions over another's? The book's readership includes those interested in gendered scholarship and in Christian and Muslim activism. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Much feminist scholarship has viewed Catholicism and Shi'i Islam as two religious traditions that, historically, have greeted feminist claims with skepticism or outright hostility. __Creative Conformity__ demonstrates how certain liberal secular assumptions about these religious traditions are only partly correct and, more importantly, misleading. In this highly original study, Elizabeth Bucar compares the feminist politics of eleven US Catholic and Iranian Shi'i women and explores how these women contest and affirm clerical mandates in order to expand their roles within their religious communities and national politics. Introduction : Creative Conformity, Clerical Guidance, And A Rhetorical Turn -- What's A Good Woman To Do? Recasting The Symbolics Of Moral Exemplars -- Surprises From The Laps Of Mothers : Leveraging The Gaps In Procreative Virtues -- Scripture, Sacred Law, And Hermeneutics : Exploring Gendered Meanings In Textual Records -- Performance Beyond The Pulpit : Presenting Disorderly Bodies In Public Spaces -- Republication Of Moral Discourse : Compromise And Censorship As Political Freedom -- Conclusion -- Epilogue : Revisiting Shahla Habibi. Elizabeth M. Bucar. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 187-195) And Index. Much feminist scholarship has viewed Catholicism and Shi'i Islam as two religious traditions that, historically, have greeted feminist claims with skepticism or outright hostility. This book demonstrates how certain liberal secular assumptions about these religious traditions are only partly correct and, more importantly, misleading.