The Status of Pious Women in Sunni Islam: a Study on the Public Religious Practices of Women in Ankara
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THE STATUS OF PIOUS WOMEN IN SUNNI ISLAM: A STUDY ON THE PUBLIC RELIGIOUS PRACTICES OF WOMEN IN ANKARA A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES OF MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY BY FİGEN UZAR ÖZDEMİR IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY JULY 2017 I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work. Name, Last name: Figen UZAR ÖZDEMİR Signature : iii ABSTRACT THE STATUS OF PIOUS WOMEN IN SUNNI ISLAM: A STUDY ON THE PUBLIC RELIGIOUS PRACTICES OF WOMEN IN ANKARA Figen Uzar Özdemir Ph.D., Department of Sociology Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Ayşe Saktanber July 2017, 262 pages The aim of this dissertation is to demonstrate how pious women‘s undertaking of public Islamic practices shapes their social status within the private domains such as their families and neighborhoods and public spaces of the mosque and Quran courses in urban Ankara in contemporary Turkey. I conducted an ethnographic field study in the Quran courses in three districts of Ankara, namely Bahçelievler, Çukurambar and Sincan which are middle, upper middle and lower middle class respectively. This study focuses on the findings of my participant observation within congregational prayers, Quran recitation and ―sohbet‖ sessions of the Directorate of Religious Affairs (DRA) and 26 semi-structured interviews conducted with pious lay women and female preachers. I aim to find out despite their subordinate status within Islamic practices, how pious women enhance their status through their practicing of Islamic rituals. iv The main finding of this study is that a pious woman‘s social status is enhanced by the performance of public Islamic rituals juxtaposed with factors such as religious knowledge, display of emotions during ritual and the negotiation of daily chores with religious duties. This finding reflects both the fact that practicing Islamic rituals grants agency to pious women by enhancing their social status and also the fact that gender and religion work together in maintaining the subordination of women, and control of them by the patriarchal society. Keywords: Sunni-Islamic rituals, social status, agency, pious women, Turkey v ÖZ SÜNNİ İSLAM‘DA DİNDAR KADINLARIN KONUMU: ANKARA‘DA KADINLARIN KAMUSAL DİNİ PRATİKLERİ ÜZERİNE BİR ÇALIŞMA Figen Uzar Özdemir Doktora, Sosyoloji Bölümü Tez Yöneticisi: Prof. Dr. Ayşe Saktanber Temmuz 2017, 262 sayfa Bu tezin amacı günümüz Türkiye‘sinde Ankara kentinde yaşayan dindar kadınların kamusal İslami pratiklerinin aile ve komşuluk gibi özel alanlardaki ve cami ve Kuran kursları gibi kamusal alanlardaki sosyal statülerini nasıl şekillendirdiğini göstermektir. Bu amaçla Ankara‘nın orta sınıf, üst orta sınıf ve alt orta sınıf üç semti olan Bahçelievler, Çukurambar ve Sincan semtlerindeki Kuran kurslarında etnografik bir alan çalışması yaptım. Bu çalışma, Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı‘nın ―sohbet‖ ve Kuran okuma pratikleri ile cemaat namazları sırasında yaptığım katılımcı gözlemin ve ―sıradan‖ dindar kadınlar ve vaizelerle yaptığım 26 yarı-yapılandırılmış mülakatın bulgularına odaklanmaktadır. Bu tezde İslami pratiklerdeki tabi kılınan konumlarına rağmen, dindar kadınların İslami ritüeller yoluyla aile içinde, komşuları ve arkadaşları arasında statülerini nasıl iyileştirdikleri sorusuna yanıt arıyorum. Bu çalışmanın temel bulgusu, kamusal İslami ritüeller yaparak dindar bir kadının statüsünün iyileşmesinin dini ritüel performans ile dini bilgi, duyguların ritüel esnasında dışavurumu ve günlük işlerin dini görevlerle dengelenmesi gibi etkenlerin bir araya gelmesi sonucu gerçekleştiğidir. Bu bulgu, ibadet etmenin dindar kadınların statüsünü iyileştirerek onlara bir faillik kazandırabildiğini göstermektedir. Bu bulgu, vi aynı zamanda, toplumsal cinsiyet ve dinin ataerkil toplum tarafından kadınların kontrol ve tahakküm altına alınmasını sürdürmede beraber çalıştıklarını da göstermektedir. Anahtar kelimeler: Sünni-Islami ritüeller, sosyal statü, faillik, dindar kadınlar, Türkiye vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor Prof. Dr. Ayşe Saktanber for her continuous support, patience, motivation, and enthusiasm. Her guidance helped me in all the stages of research and writing of this thesis. I am very grateful to the other members of my thesis committee, Prof. Dr. Ayşe Ayata, Prof. Dr. Dilek Cindoğlu, Prof. Dr. Simten Coşar and and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Umut Beşpınar for their feedback and constructive criticisms. My sincere thanks also go to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Aykan Erdemir and Dr. Tuğba Tanyeri Erdemir who introduced me to ethnographic field research. I must also acknowledge my professors Prof. Dr. Sencer Ayata, Prof. Dr. Meliha Altunışık, Prof. Dr. Elif Ekin Akşit and Assist. Prof. Dr. İdil Aybars for their support at different stages of my Ph.D. journey. This thesis has received extensive support and guidance from many people in all stages from the start to the end. I would like to thank my friends Assist. Prof. Dr. Selda Tuncer, Assist. Prof. Dr. Besim Can Zırh, Dr. Neşe Karahasan, Dr. Gözde Çerçioğlu Yücel, Esra Demirkol, Assist. Prof. Dr. Lucy Bennison-Chapman, Assist. Prof. Dr. Öznur Öncül, Dr. Neslihan Demirkol, Dr. Ozan Aşık, Dr. Hilal Arslan, Serhat Ulaş, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ayça Demir, Zekai Usluoğlu, Nuray Ceylan, Kübra Oğuz, Ökmen Yücel, Sibel İmren Öztürk, Nezihe Başak Ergin, Zeynep Baykal, Gülriz Şen, Atilla Barutçu, Evrim Yılmaz, Esat Arslan, Talat Demirsöz, Şule Demirsöz, Yunus Akbaba, Mehmet Ali Arslan, Ersayim Gürbuğa, Şirin Ateş, Assist. Prof. Dr. Sinan Tankut Gülhan, Dilek Yıldız, Aytek Sever, Assist. Prof. Dr. Deniz Dölek Sever, H. Anıl Sepetci, Assist. Prof. Dr. Zeynep Başak, Assist. Prof. Dr. viii İbrahim Gündoğdu and Assist. Prof. Dr. Şenay Güneymen for their help, feedbacks, support and friendship. Very special thanks go out to my respondents from Bahçelievler, Çukurambar and Sincan for their time to share their views with me and for accepting me to participate in their everyday lives. I am very thankful to Sündüs Aydın from the METU Department of Sociology; my workmates at the METU Graduate School of Social Sciences, Güler Barış, Sibel Er, Selma Şahindokuyucu, Öznur Çatak Soylu, Hatice Falcıoğlu, Bilgehan Yıldırım, Eyüp Şahin, Neslihan Kaya, Zekai Karagülle, Hatice Çelik, Esra Can, Aslı Ertan and Sevban Başer for their consistent help and my students at Bülent Ecevit University for their friendship and support. I would also like to thank my family; Kadriye, Kadir, Bilgen, Mine, Hanife and Selçuk Uzar; Aytül and İbrahim Özdemir, Merve, Ali Sait and Ömer Eyüboğlu. They were always supporting and encouraging me with their best wishes. Last but not least, I would like to thank my husband, Caner Özdemir. He is always supportive and loving through good and bad times. He is the best friend and a colleague with all kinds of support I may need. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS PLAGIARISM .................. ..........................................................................................iii ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................ iv ÖZ ................................................................................................................................ vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ......................................................................................... viii TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................. x LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................... xiv CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 1 1.1. Main Objectives ............................................................................................. 1 1.2. Conceptual Definitions .................................................................................. 5 1.3. Research Themes and Questions ................................................................... 7 1.4. Research Contribution and Significance ....................................................... 9 1.5. Chapter Outline ............................................................................................ 11 2. THEORETICAL REVIEW .................................................................................... 15 2.1. Theoretical reflections on the sociological concept of religion ...................... 15 2.1.1. Definitions, functions and conflicts ......................................................... 15 2.1.2. Discussions on the definitions of Islam .................................................... 16 2.1.3. Bourdieu‘s ―religious field‖ ..................................................................... 21 2.1.4. Religious ritual and ―ritual transformation‖ ............................................. 23 2.1.5. Gendered religion and religious ritual ...................................................... 25 2.2. Demise of religion? ......................................................................................... 31 x 2.2.1. Modernization and secularization ............................................................ 31 2.2.2. Religious revivalism, Islamism, post-Islamism and women