Women in Fundamentalism: Modesty, Marriage, and Motherhood

by Maxine L. Margolis

Overview

Women in Fundamentalism examines the striking similarities in three extreme fundamentalist religious communities in their views about and treatment of women. Whether Christian, Jewish or Muslim, the fundamentalist offshoots of these religions subject women to myriad restrictions in their daily lives. All three seek to maintain male control over women’s bodies, women’s activities, and the people with whom women associate. The three also share common ideologies about women's “true nature" and proper place. The specific cases covered in this text are (1) Mormon polygamists, specifically the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), who live in Utah, Arizona, Texas, and isolated enclaves in Canada and Mexico; (2) the Satmar Hasidim of Williamsburg, Brooklyn; Kiryas Joel, a town in Rockland County, New York, and several settlements in Israel; and, (3) an extreme brand of Islam practiced by the Pashtun ethnic group of Afghanistan and neighboring areas of Pakistan.

This book effectively bridges the disciplines of women’s studies, religion, and anthropology, making it a valuable resource for professors and students seeking new qualitative and quantitative material on women’s positions in various religious traditions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781538134030
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	10/10/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	218
File size:	17 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Maxine L. Margolis is professor emerita of anthropology, Latin American Studies, and women’s studies at the University of Florida. She is also adjunct senior research scholar at the Institute for Latin American Studies in the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. She was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2009 and was awarded the Lifetime Contribution Award by the Brazilian Studies Association in 2014.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments

1 Gendered Fundamentalism: An Introduction

Fundamentalisms

Underlying Commonalities

2 Who Are They?

Hasidism: Jewish Fundamentalists

Judaism on Steroids: The Satmar of Williamsburg and Kiryas Joel

Mormon Fundamentalism

The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Islamic Fundamentalism

The Pashtun of Afghanistan

The Tribal Ideology of Pashtunwali

3 Modesty Above All

Keeping Them Apart: The Satmar, the Pashtun, and the FLDS

What’s a Woman to Wear? The Case of the Satmar

What’s a Woman to Wear? The FLDS and the Pashtun

What Is It About Women’s Hair?

4 Marriage and Male Control

Marriage: FLDS Style

What Is It About Satmar Marriage?

Suffering and Pashtun Marriage

5 Women as Broodmares

Motherhood in the FLDS

Women as Broodmares among the Satmar Hasidim

Niddah Separation

Women as Broodmares among the Pashtun

Seeking Sex Outside: The Pashtun and the Satmar

That’s Just What Women Are Like

6 Even More Extreme

A New Extreme: The FLDS Under Warren Jeffs

Pashtun Extremes

Satmar Extremes

7 And the Future?

The Pashtun Future

What’s in Store for the FLDS?

Threats to the Satmar Enclave

Postscript

References

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Barbara A Anderson, DrPH, MPH, MS, BSN (Frontier Nursing University)
Description: This excellent comparative medical anthropological study examines three religious communities that are "fundamentalist" - a term of uncertain meaning but implying strict adherence to strict religious regulations. The three are the Satmar Hasidic Jews of New York State and Israel, the Pashtun of Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan, and the Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) of Arizona and Utah, this last being a breakaway Mormon group that preserves polygamy, long abandoned by regular Mormon congregations. The author focuses on restrictions that cause major health issues, especially around menses, birth, and motherhood.
Purpose: The purpose of the book is to provide a comparative cross-cultural analysis of three strict fundamentalist groups as they impact standards of modesty, access to education, autonomous control over reproductive processes, and expectations of family size. The book meets the objectives well and is an excellent exemplar of how highly prescriptive, male-dominated cultural and religious beliefs can profoundly affect women's autonomy in decision making to the detriment of the health of women and their children.
Audience: While this is a book written from an anthropological perspective, it also targets maternal care health professionals and public health advocates and policymakers who either directly interface with these populations or provide regulatory and governmental oversight of the health of these populations.
Features: The most compelling aspect of this book is the integrative comparison of the three studied populations as they impact the health and survivability of women in their communities. Regardless of religious identity, the impact of total control of women's bodies, their educational opportunities, activities, and associations provide restrictions that not only limit potential but can be life-threatening to women and their children. The one shortcoming of the work is the limited access to direct communication with Pashtun women in the field, although the author interfaced with many persons who had this experience.
Assessment: I read this book with fascination having had firsthand experience providing health care and educational services to two of the three populations described. The descriptions matched my experiences and, as such, validated concerns around potentially life-threatening, unrestrained fertility regardless of the health of the woman and her voice in the control of her body. While there is literature on each of the identified populations, I am not aware of comparative work across fundamentalist groups of differing religious identity as they impact the total control of choices that can adversely affect health and even the survivability of a woman regulated within the norms of the community.

Doody's Review Service

Margolis brings an anthropologist’s eye to a question of broad and long-standing interest: what accounts for the parallels in the views and treatment of women in three apparently distinct religious communities. In this extended meditation on the underlying logics of female subordination among extremist groups, Margolis reminds us of the value of structured comparison, a forgotten art in this era of increasingly narrow specialization.

Misha Klein

Maxine Margolis casts an anthropological eye on three cases of gendered fundamentalism. Although male power and the systematic control of women (their bodies, sexuality, marriage choices, and access to public space) have characterized state societies for centuries (China, India, Cultures throughout the Mediterranean), the Satmar Hasidim, the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints, and the Pushtun of Afghanistan and Pakistan persist in contemporary times. Despite their differing contexts (urban Brooklyn, small town Arizona and Utah, and rural villages in an Islamic society) the similarities are striking. Yet Margolis shows they also face irreversible changes brought by the internet, secular education, entanglements with the US legal system, and Western organizing around human rights.

Louise Lamphere

This book is interesting, timely, and readable and will appeal to a wide range of audiences and stimulate public discourse. Its systematic comparison of gender roles in three geographically and culturally separate fundamentalist communities is intrinsically interesting to any student of society.

Conrad Kottak