Between dialogue and contestation: Gender, Islam, and the challenges of a Malian public sphere

Abstract

This paper examines how Islam has become a widely used idiom in discussions about gender in Mali. It foregrounds ordinary Malians' and particularly women's reflexive engagements with broadly debated religious and political questions. Centred on a 2004 five-day conference on gender issues, this paper examines the forms of Muslim women's involvement in the Malian public sphere, some of the challenges these women encounter, and their discursive attempts to reconcile their emancipatory agendas with their identities as Muslims. © 2009 Royal Anthropological Institute.