A Foucauldian discourse analysis of women's resistance against exclusion from a mosque in Johannesburg

Abstract

Female accessibility to the mosque as a social institution invokes gendered subject positions and power dynamics. In the holy month of Ramadan in 2018, a group of Muslim women in Johannesburg resisted their exclusion from a mosque space, which led to diverse reactions expressed on social media. Facebook posts between May 16 and June 14, 2018 were analysed using Foucauldian discourse analysis to map discursive constructions of the Muslim women's resistance. Subject positions, ranging from women as sexual temptation to women as holistic, spiritual beings, emerged from the analysis. Different action orientations were promoted, ranging from submission to the mosque leadership to equating the women's activism to the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. Implications for reformative theological scholarship and positionalities of resistance are discussed.