Contested identities: Women and religion in Algeria and Jordan

Abstract

The Islamic resurgence in the Middle East has led many women to shifts in perceptions of self as women and as Muslims. This chapter looks at the shifting notions of self of Aisha and other women and how their multiple identities continually contest each other. Women's identity is therefore more marked by relatedness; as Josselson says identity is not a matter of being but fundamentally of being with. The ideal of women's identity as being dissolved in the identity of the family group includes her religious identity. The incorporation of woman's religious identity under that of her family is expressed by the saying 'a woman follows her husband', which means that upon marriage a woman takes her husband's religion. The new veil, unlike most of the traditional veils of Jordanian and Algerian women, is 'workable' as it allows economic activity.