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GENDER, RELIGION and SOCIETY a Study of Women and Convent Life in Coptic Orthodox Egypt

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GENDER, RELIGION and SOCIETY a Study of Women and Convent Life in Coptic Orthodox Egypt GENDER, RELIGION and SOCIETY A Study of Women and Convent Life in Coptic Orthodox Egypt Report from a Minor Field Study by Karolina Jeppson A Master Thesis in Cultural Anthropology Department of Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology Uppsala University Supervisors: Per Brandström and Ing-Britt Trankell May 2003 Gender, Religion and Society. A Study of Women and Convent Life in Coptic Orthodox Egypt Abstract This study deals with the interrelations between gender, religion and society in the context of contemporary Coptic Orthodox Egypt, with a focus on Coptic nuns and convent life. In the wake of religious revitalization in today’s Egypt, Muslim as well as Coptic, monasticism has strengthened its position in the Coptic culture. New religious institutions have been established for women and an increasing number of women choose to live a monastic life. The study explores in what way women’s choice to live a convent life is related to the situation of Coptic women in society. By discussing from the approach of female agency, constraints and possibilities for individual action and gender role patterns, answers are sought to the question why women opt for monasticism. The values and virtues in monasticism correspond to established values in society such as values of purity and virginity. Women who choose a monastic lifestyle fully embrace these values, and are hence enjoying a position that elevates their status as women within religion and within society. The women in convents experience their domain of agency as increased, due to their possibility to focus on their aims, which would have been restricted by ordinary family life. Keywords: Egypt; Coptic Orthodox; monasticism, religion, gender, agency, power, freedom 2 ABSTRACT ..........................................................................................................2 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................5 Aim and disposition .................................................................................6 2. ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE STUDY OF WOMEN AND RELIGION.................................................................................7 3. THEORETICAL POINTS OF DEPARTURE............................................12 4. METHOD........................................................................................................15 5. ETHNOGRAPHIC AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND ......................17 Egypt .......................................................................................................17 The Copts................................................................................................20 The Coptic Orthodox Church...............................................................21 Structure ...............................................................................................21 Faith .....................................................................................................22 Language and liturgy ...........................................................................22 Saints and martyrs................................................................................23 Renewal...................................................................................................24 Monasticism............................................................................................26 Convents and monasteries....................................................................28 Nuns and monks....................................................................................29 6. IDEOLOGIES AND PRACTICES IN RELATION TO WOMEN IN PATRIARCHAL SOCIETIES..........................................................................30 Purity valued in virginity ......................................................................31 Honour and shame.................................................................................33 Female circumcision ..............................................................................36 Controlled sexuality...............................................................................37 7. COPTIC WOMEN IN RELATION TO CONVENTS ...............................41 Women’s roles in the world ..................................................................41 At home and at work.............................................................................42 Tradition and family.............................................................................46 Gender equality ....................................................................................49 Why choosing a monastic life?..............................................................52 Motivations...........................................................................................52 Life stories ............................................................................................56 Escape from ordinary life?...................................................................59 Women’s roles in the convents .............................................................61 3 A structured life....................................................................................61 Identification ........................................................................................69 Social hierarchy ...................................................................................72 Agency in the convent life .....................................................................74 Capacity to act......................................................................................74 Rituals and agency ...............................................................................77 Nuns and the surroundings ..................................................................79 Freedom................................................................................................81 8. CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................82 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...............................................................................85 BIBLIOGRAPHY...............................................................................................86 The picture on the front page shows St. Dimyanah surrounded by 40 virgins, who together with St. Dimyanah, died as martyrs in the early centuries. In the very same place where they died, in the north east of Egypt, there still is a nuns’ convent named after her. 4 1. INTRODUCTION There are many different ways of how to fulfil and live out those things in life that are a priority. In the field of religion, the practical actions and lifestyles differ. One of the more radical options is to ”leave the world” and choose a monastic way of life where, as a nun or a monk, one may concentrate fully on one’s faith. As a result of having stayed in a Swedish nuns’ convent, I became interested in monasticism and conditions for monastic life. Since Christian monastic life has its origin in Egypt, the region seemed apt to be a starting point for this study. In Egypt today, the Christian Coptic Orthodox religion is a minority embedded in a mainstream Muslim society. During the last decades, a renewal of Islam has flourished in Egypt. As a response to this, an equally strong renewal has revitalized Christian values and traditions, emphasizing the importance of monks and nuns as carriers of the Coptic culture. The synchronisation of the social and religious movements on both sides reflects the complexity of the politico-religious relations between Christians and Muslims. Is this revival to be understood as a reaction to the ’modern’ values, which are spread and manifested throughout the secular Egyptian state? This essay is based on a Minor Field Study, performed in November- December 2002, and sponsored by SIDA. Literature on theories and ethnographical history related to the field forms the basis for the study. The information from the field is collected through participant observation, conversations and interviews. I undertook my field study in Cairo with surroundings. Most of my time I spent in Beni Suef, a city 120 km south of the capital. There, I stayed in a convent of active nuns, which gave me the opportunity to follow the rhythm of their daily life. 5 Aim and disposition This study is concerned with the interrelations between gender, religion and society in Coptic-Orthodox Egypt. I will discuss how Coptic women experience the monastic way of life, and how their choice of lifestyle is connected to the conditions under which women of today live. Cross- cultural studies have shown that women's position in religion is often a reflection of their position in society (King 1995: 14). I find it important, however, to see nuns in their own right, as a distinct category within the institutional hierarchies of the Coptic Church. I will focus on how the possibilities and capacities to live and to act are experienced by the nuns and by Coptic women in society. Motivations and specificities of the convent life will be investigated in relation to nuns’ experiences of their former and present situations. I will also discuss how the monastic lifestyle is rooted in the Coptic Egyptian society, and how it leads to increasing numbers of applicants to the nuns’ convents. In the two following chapters, I will describe and discuss the theoretical perspectives involved. First, anthropological perspectives on the study of women and religion are discussed. Thereafter, I will outline the
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