Deleuzian Conceptualizaion of “Agency”: Muslim Women Questions
Deleuzian Conceptualizaion of “Agency”: Muslim Women Questions

Summary/Abstract: There are many studies about whether Muslim women are oppressed or emancipated by Islamic traditions. Some claim that Islamic traditions, such as the headscarf, oppress women while others want to prove that these women have agency when they perform Islamic traditions. This project aims to use a Deleuzian conceptualization of agency1 and freedom that will enable us to examine multi-faced, relational, and spatial formations of Muslim women’s lives. In other words, I apply the relational ontology of the France philosopher, Gilles Deleuze, to contestations over Muslim women. Through this relational ontology, I problematize the depictions of Muslim women solely based on religious frameworks in a pejorative way and want to explore alternative patterns in Muslim women’s experiences and practices. Therefore, I use the Deleuzian conceptualization of agency and freedom to demassify the depictions of Muslim women as submissive beings based on their religious engagements. I suggest scholarly projects that will be attentive to the situatedness of Muslim women.

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