Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Persistent becoming: women’s religious thought and the global

  • Original Article
  • Published:
International Politics Reviews Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This essay attempts a ‘state of the field’ examination of a branch of feminist thinking within the global, namely women’s religious thought. Variants of religious feminism and women’s religious have long been existent and have recently ‘remerged’ across the globe. Some argue for the reinterpretation of religious systems that are consistent with orthodox dogma (Tomalin in Oxf Dev Stud 37(2):81–100, 2009), while others look for dialogue and intersection with secular feminist thinking. Transnational networks of religious women, both ordained and lay, exist and have encouraged serious reflection upon and provide significant challenge to unequal and oppressive gender hierarchies within religious traditions and religious societies as well as suggesting provocations to secular organising. There is, arguably, a kind of strange revolution here, where traditional hierarchies are challenged, but also ‘progressive’, ‘liberal’ structures are found wanting. In the urgencies and reflections from women’s religious thought in Asia, Latin America and in Africa, both Western imperialism and locality must be reckoned with. Conceptually, this is an essay on what or who is silenced, meditating on silence, and, why silences appear. We can argue that the secular bent of theory and study in International Relations can and does silence the interventions of feminist as well as womanist religious activity and women’s religious thought. Hence, the question, overall, raised by this essay is what could further study and engagement with such religious thought bring to the study of the international? In doing so, this essay looks at the ‘strangeness’ of women’s religious thought with celebration, reflecting generally on the parameters of such thought in its global form, particularly in terms of the sub-fields of religion and also feminist theory. It also discusses what challenges and provocations the voices of women religious bring to the study of the international, and what further study and attention to transnational movements of such religious thought could mean for alternative sites for the discussion of the global.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abu-Lughod, L. (2002). Do muslim women really need saving? Anthropological reflections on cultural relativism and its others. American Anthropologist, 104(3), 783–790.

    Google Scholar 

  • Adamu, F. (2011). A double-edged sword: Challenging women’s oppression within Muslim society in Northern Nigeria. In E. Tomalin (Ed.), Gender, faith and development. Oxford: Oxfam and Rugby, Practical Action Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alexander, M. J., & Mohanty, C. T. (2013). Feminist genealogies, colonial legacies, democratic futures. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aquino, M. P. (1998). Latin American feminist theology. Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, 14(1), 89–107.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ashcroft, B. (2001). On post-colonial futures: Transformations of colonial culture. London: Continuum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baksh-Soodeen, R., & Harcourt, W. (2015). The Oxford handbook of transnational feminist movements. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barlas, A. S. M. A. (2002). Believing women in islam: Unreading patriarchal interpretations of the Quran (1st ed.). Texas: Univ of Texas Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bartholomeusz, T. J. (1994). Women under the Bo Tree: Buddhist Nuns in Sri Lanka. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Studies in Religious Traditions.

  • Basu, A. M. (2004). The squabble that never ends: Religion and fertility in the census of India. Economic and Political Weekly, 39(39), 4294–4296.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beattie, T. (2006). New catholic feminism: Theology and Theory. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Behrouz, A. N. (2003). Transforming Islamic family law: State responsibility and the role of internal initiative. Columbia Law Review, 103(5), 1136–1162.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beit-Hallahmi, B. (1997). Biology, destiny and change: Women’s religiosity and economic development. Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 153(1), 179–181.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bettiza, G. (2019). Finding faith in foreign policy: Religion and American diplomacy in a postsecular world. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bhambra, G. (2020). RSC public seminar series. RSC Public Seminar Series.

  • Bhambra, G. K., & Holmwood, J. (2018). Colonialism, postcolonialism and the liberal welfare state. New Political Economy, 23(5), 574–587.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bozeman, A. B. (1960). Politics and culture in international history. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bradley, T. (2018). Religion and gender in the developing world faith-based organizations and feminism in India. London: I.B. Tauris.

    Google Scholar 

  • Briggs, S., & Fulkerson, M. M. C. (2011). The Oxford handbook of feminist theology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler, J. (2015). Notes toward a performative theory of assembly. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carroll, T. F. (1983). Women, religion and development in the Third World. New York: Praeger.

    Google Scholar 

  • Casanova, J. (1994). Public religions in the modern world. Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Casanova, J. (2007). Rethinking secularization: A global comparative perspective. Religion, Globalization, and Culture, 101–120.

  • Chatterjee, P. (1986). Nationalist thought and the colonial world: A derivative discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cheng, P. S. (2011). Radical love: An introduction to queer theology. New York: Seabury Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cooke, M. (2000). Multiple critique: Islamic feminist rhetorical strategies. Nepantla: Views from South, 1(1), 91–110.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coomaraswamy, R. (2001). Different but free: Cultural relativism and women’s rights. In C. W. Howland (Ed.), Religious fundamentalism and the human rights of women. New York: Palgrave.

    Google Scholar 

  • Day, K. (2016a). Religious resistance to neoliberalism: Womanist and black feminist perspectives. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Day, K. (2016b). Freedom on my mind: Buddhist-womanist dialogue. Buddhist-Christian Studies 36 www.jstor.org/stable/24801541.

  • Derounian, F. (2017). How the role of nuns highlights a low view of women’s work. https://theconversation.com/how-the-role-of-nuns-highlights-a-low-view-of-womens-work-83512.

  • De Silva, S. (1988). The place of women in Buddhism. http://www.buddhachannel.tv/portail/spip.php?article4106.

  • Dhammananda, (2010). Institutional authority: A buddhist perspective. Buddhist-Christian Studies, 30, 147–157.

    Google Scholar 

  • Donahoe, A. E. (2017). Gender, religion, and international relations. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies.

  • Donaldson, L. E., & Pui-lan, K. (Eds.). (2002). Postcolonialism, feminism, and religious discourse. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • EATWOT Women’s Commission. (1994). In: EATWOT Women’s Commission. Philippines.

  • Esposito, J. L. (2001). Introduction: Women, religion, and empowerment. In Y. Y. Haddad & J. L. Esposito (Eds.), Daughters of Abraham: Feminist thought in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.

    Google Scholar 

  • Esposito, J. L., & Voll, J. O. (1996). Islam and democracy. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Esposito, J. L., & Voll, J. O. (2000). Islam and the west: Muslim voices of dialogue. Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 29(3), 613–641.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fabella, V. (1993). Beyond bonding: A third worlds womens theological journey. Malate: Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologies and the Institute of Womens Studies.

  • Fiorenza, E. S. (1985). Claiming our authority and power. In Concilium (Ed.), Johann baptist metz and edward schillebeeckx (pp. 45–53). T & T Clark LTD: Edinburgh.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fiorenza, F. S. (1991). Systematic theology: Task and methods. In F. S. Fiorenza (Ed.), Systematic theology: Roman catholic perspectives (Vol. 1, pp. 1–88). Minneapolis: Fortress Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fox, J. (2006). Religion et relations internationales: perceptions et réalités Politique étrangère. Winter Issue, 4, 1059–1071.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gebara, I. (2008). Feminist theology in Latin America: A theology without recognition. Feminist Theology, 16(3), 324–331.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gnanadason, A. (1988). Women’s oppression: A sinful situation. In V. Fabella & M. A. Oduyoye (Eds.), With passion and compassion: Third word women doing theology (pp. 69–76). Eugene: Wipf and Stock Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gokal, S. (2006). Faith, feminism and the power of love. Development, 49(1), 81–83.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gross, R. M. (1978). Hindu female deities as a resource for the contemporary rediscovery of the goddess. City, publisher?

  • Gross, R. M. (1992). Buddhism after patriarchy: A feminist history, analysis, and reconstruction of Buddhism. New York: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gross, R. M. (1996). Feminism and religion. Boston: Beacon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gross, R. M. (2010). The crisis of authority: Buddhist history for buddhist practitioners. Buddhist-Christian Studies, 30, 59–72.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gross, R. M., & Ruether, R. R. (2016). Religious feminism and the future of the planet: A Christian-Buddhist conversation. London: Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gyasi, Y. (2016). Homegoing. London: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Halliday, F. (1988). Hidden from international relations: Women and the international Arena. Rethinking International Relations (pp. 147–169).

  • Hallisey, C. (2015). Therigatha: Poems of the first Buddhist women. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haynes, J. (1998). Religion in global politics. London: Longman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haynes, J. (2014). Faith-based organizations at the United Nations. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hayward, S., & Marshall, K. (2015). Women, religion, and peacebuilding: Illuminating the unseen. Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hewitt, M. A. (1988). Critical theory of religion: A feminist analysis. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hidayatullah. (2009). Inspiration and struggle: Muslim feminist theology and the work of Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza. Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, Special Issue: In Honor of Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza (pp. 162–170).

  • Hinga, T. M. (2002). African feminist theologies, the global village, and the imperative of solidarity across borders: The case of the circle of concerned African women theologians. Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, 18(1), 79–86.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huntington, S. (1989). The clash of civilizations and the remaking of world order. New York: Simon and Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hurd, E. S. (2007). The politics of secularism and international relations theory. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hurd, E. S. (2012). International politics after secularism. Review of International Studies, 38(5), 943–961.

    Google Scholar 

  • Icaza, R. (2017). Decolonial feminism and global politics: Border thinking and vulnerability as a knowing otherwise. In M. Woons & S. Weier (Eds.), Developing a critical epistemology of global politics, E-International Relations. https://www.e-ir.info/wpcontent/uploads/2017/06/Critical-Epistemologies-of-Global-Politics-E-IR.pdf.

  • Ingram, P. O. (1997). Buddhist-Christian dialogue: Mutual renewal and transformation. Eugene: Wipf & Stock Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Isherwood, L., & MacEwan, D. (2001). Introducing feminist theology. Sheffield: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackson, A. R., & Gozdecka, D. A. (2011). Caught between Different Legal Pluralisms: Women Who Wear Islamic Dress as the Religious ‘Other’ in European Rights Discourses. The Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law, 43(64), 91–120.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jayawardena, K. (2016). Feminism and nationalism in the third world. Place of publication not identified: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Joppke, C. (2009). Veil: Mirror of identity. Malden: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Joseph, M. P. (2015). Conversation among the Margins. Theologies of the Non-Person (pp. 1–29).

  • Juergensmeyer, M. (1993). The New cold war? Religious nationalism confronts the secular state. Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kandasamy, M. (2016). Gypsy goddess. Place of publication not identified: Fourth Estate.

  • Kandiyoti, D. (2011). Disentangling religion and politics: Whither gender equality? IDS Bulletin, 42(1), 10–14.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kang, N., & Ingram, L. (2014). Diasporic feminist theology: Asia and theopolitical imagination. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kayaoglu, T. (2010). Westphalian eurocentrism in international relations theory. International Studies Review, 12(2), 193–217. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2486.2010.00928.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kubálková, V. (2003). Toward an international political theology. In P. Hatzopoulos & F. Petito (Eds.), Religion in international relations: Culture and religion in international relations. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kubálková, V. (2009). A “Turn to Religion” in international relations? Perspectives, 17(2), 13–41.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kwok, P-l. (2000). Introducing Asian feminist theology. Cleveland: Pilgrim Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kyung, C. H. (1994). Han-pu-ri: Doing theology from Korean women’s perspective. In R. S. Sugirrtharajah (Ed.), Frontiers in Asian theology emerging trends (pp. 27–36). New York: Orbis Bokks.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lazreg, M. (2019). The eloquence of silence: Algerian women in question. Abingdon: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ling, L. M. (2017). World politics in colour. Millenium Journal of International Studies, 45(3), 473–491.

    Google Scholar 

  • Loughlin, G. (2007). The end of sex. In G. Loughlin (Ed.), Queer theology: Rethinking the western body. Malden: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lugones, M. (2016). The coloniality of gender. In W. Harcourt (Ed.), The palgrave handbook of gender and development. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lugones, M. (1990). Structure/antistructure and agency under oppressions. Journal of Philosophy, 87(10), 500–507.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lugones, M. (1992). On Borderlands/La Frontera: An interpretative analysis. Hypathia, 7(4), 31–37.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lugones, M. (2010). Towards a decolonial feminism. Hypathia, 4, 742–759.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lynch, C., & Schwarz, T. (2016). Humanitarianism’s proselytism problem. International Studies Quarterly, 60(4), p636–p646.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mangion, C. M. (2019). Catholic nuns and sisters in a secular age: Britain, 1945–90. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marchand, M. H. (2014). Engendering transnational movements/transnationalizing women’s and feminist movements in the Americas. Latin American Policy, 5(2), 180–192. https://doi.org/10.1111/lamp.12056.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marsden, L. (2016). The ashgate research companion to religion and conflict resolution. London: Taylor and Francis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marsh, S. (2012). “The Odds and Ends of Things”: Dorothy days 1930s catholic workercolumns and the prudent translation of catholic social teachings. Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 42(4), 330–352.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moghadam, V. M. (2001). Transnational feminist networks: Collective action in an era of globalization. In P. Hamel, H. Lustiger-Thaler, J. N. Pieterse, & S. Roseneil (Eds.), Globalization and social movements. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mohanty, C. T. (1991). Third world women and the politics of feminism. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nandy, A. (1988). The politics of secularism and the recovery of religious tolerance. Alternatives, 13(2), 177–194. https://doi.org/10.1177/030437548801300202.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nandy, A. (1997). The twilight of certitudes: Secularism, hindu nationalism, and other masks of deculturation. Alternatives Global, Local, Political, 22(2), 157–176.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nandy, A. (2013). Regimes of narcissism, regimes of despair. New Delhi: Oxford Univ. Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oduyoye, M. A. (2001). Introducing African women’s theology (introductions in feminist theology). Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pasha, M. K. (2005). Islam, ‘‘Soft’’ orientalism and hegemony: A gramscian rereading. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, 8(4), 543–558.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pathirana, S. (2019). ‘Sri Lanka’s Bhikkuni Nuns and their fight for identity papers’, BBC, 22 December.

  • Peiris, R. (2019). Breaking the barriers a reflection on suffering in buddhism and christianity in the perspectives of war-widows in sri lankA. Nijmegen: Radboud University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Persaud, R. B., & Sajed, A. (2018). Race, gender, and culture in international relations postcolonial perspectives. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Petito, F., & Hatzopoulos, P. (2003). Religion in international relations: The return from exile. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Philpott, D. (2000). The religious roots of modern international relations. World Politics, 52, 206–245.

    Google Scholar 

  • Philpott, D. (2001). Revolutions in sovereignty: How ideas shaped modern international relations. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Philpott, D. (2002a). The challenge of September 11 to secularism in international relations. World Politics, 55(1), 66–95.

    Google Scholar 

  • Philpott, D. (2002b). The challenge of September eleventh to secularism in international relations. World Polity., 55, 66–95.

    Google Scholar 

  • Philpott, D. (2015). Reconciliation, politics and transitional justice. In S. Appleby (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of religion, conflict, and peacebuilding. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pieris, A. (1988). An Asian theology of liberation. Maryknoll: Orbis Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prasad, S. K. (2014). The marginalisation of religion in international relations: Deconstructing secular IR theories. South Asian Survey, 21(1–2), 35–50. https://doi.org/10.1177/0971523115592487.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ranawana, A. (2020). The sinking of the Island. In H. Malcolm (Ed.), Words for a dying world. London: SCM Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rinaldo, R. (2013). Mobilizing piety: Islam and feminism in Indonesia. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rose, G. (1997). Situating knowledges: Positionality, reflexivities and other tactics. Progress in Human Geography, 21, 305–320.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rupp, L. (2011). The persistence of transnational organizing: The case of the homophile movement. The American Historical Review, 116(4), 1014–1039.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rutazibwa, O. U. (2018). On babies and bathwater: Decolonizing international development studies. In S. de Jong, R. Icaza, & O. U. Rutazibwa (Eds.), Decolonization and feminisms in global teaching and learning (pp. 192–214). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shani, G. (2005). Beyond khalistan: Sikh diasporic identity and critical international theory. Sikh Formations: Religion, Culture, Theory, 1(1), 57–74.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shani, G. (2007a). Provincialising critical theory: Islam, sikhism and international relations. Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 20(3), 417–434.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shani, G. (2007b). Sikh nationalism and identity in a global age. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shani, G. (2008). Toward a post-western IR: The ‘Umma,” ‘Khalsa Panth,” and critical international relations theory. International Studies Review, 10(4), 722–734.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shani, G. (2013). Religion, identity and human security. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shani, G., Sato, M., & Pasha, M. K. (2007). Protecting human security in a post 9/11 world: critical and global insights. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sheikh, M. K. (2012). How does religion matter? Pathways to religion in international relations. Review of International Studies, 38(2), 365–392.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sherma, R. D. (1998). Sacred immanence: Reflections of Ecofeminism in Hindu Tantra. In L. E. Nelson (Ed.), Purifying the earthly body of god. Albany: SUNY Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Srinivasan, M. (2017). There was a gap about our part of the world: In Conversation with Kumari Jayawardena. The Hindu. https://www.thehindu.com/books/%E2%80%98There-was-a-gap-about-our-part-of-the-world%E2%80%99/article16970546.ece.

  • Stuart, E. (2003). Turning towards the Tomb: Priesthood and Gender. Theology & Sexuality, 10(1), 30–39.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sugirtharajah, S. (2002). Hinduism and feminism: Some concerns. Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, 18(2), p97–p104.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sundarraman, V., & Graham, B. (2018). The urgent need for queer and feminist hindu theology. Sociology and Anthropology, 6(8), 665–671.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sylvester, C. (1996). The contributions of feminist theory to international relations. In S. Smith, et al. (Eds.), International theory: Positivism and beyond (pp. 254–277). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tambiah, S. J. (1992). Buddhism betrayed?: Religion, politics, and violence in Sri Lanka. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tanakasemptitat, P. (2019). ‘Meet Thailand’s female rebel monks who are defying tradition’, Insider.com, 10 January,

  • Taylor, C. (2007). A secular age. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, S. (2005). The global resurgence of religion and the transformation of international relations: The struggle for the soul of the twenty-first century. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tickner, A. B. (2003). Seeing IR differently: Notes from the third world. Millennium Journal of International Studies, 32(2), 295–324.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tickner, J. A. (2001). Gendering world politics: Issues and approaches in the post-Cold War era. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tomalin, E. (2009). Buddhist feminist transnational networks, female ordination and women’s empowerment. Oxford Development Studies, 37(2), 81–100.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tomalin, E. (2011). Gender, faith and development. Oxford: Oxfam and Rugby, Practical Action Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trouillot, M.-R. (1995). Silencing the past: Power and the production of history. Boston: Beacon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tsomo, K. L. (Ed.). (2000). Introduction to innovative buddhist women: Swimming against the stream (pp. xvii–xxviii). London and New York: Routledge.

  • Vishwanathan, K. (2010). Aesthetics, nationalism, and the image of woman in modern indian art. Place of publication, publisher.

  • Vuola, E. (1997). Limits of liberation: Praxis as method in Latin American liberation theology and feminist theology. Helsinki: Suomalainen tiedeakatemia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walker, C. (2011). Christianity, development, and women’s liberation. In E. Tomalin (Ed.), Gender, faith and development. Oxford: Oxfam and Rugby, Practical Action Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, D. (1994). Womanist theology: Black women’s voices. In U. King (Ed.), Feminist theology from the third world: A reader (pp. 77–87). New York: Orbis Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Youngs, G. (2006). Feminist international relations in the age of the war on terror: Ideologies, religions and conflict. International Feminist Journal of Politics, 8(1), 3–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zalewski, M. (2018). Feminist approaches to international relations theory in the post- cold war period. In The Age of Perplexity: Rethinking the World we knew. Open Mind BBVA https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/books/the-age-of-perplexity/.

  • Zine, J. (2004). Creating a critical faith-centered space for antiracist feminism: Reflections of a muslim scholar-activist. Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, 20(2), 167–187.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zwissler, L. (2018). Religious, feminist, activist: Cosmologies of interconnection. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This article was written partially during a Visiting Researcher period at Oxford Brookes University, UK. The author is also grateful to the resources made available via Catherine of Siena College at the University of Roehampton, the Bodleian Social Sciences Library, and the Tulana Research Centre in Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. I am grateful for conversations with Professor Tina Beattie, Sr Dr Rasika Peiris, Professor Aloy Peiris SJ, Dr Christiane Smith, Ms Beverley Harry and Dr Claudia Marques-Martin that help shape these writings.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Anupama Ranawana

Authors
  1. Anupama Ranawana
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anupama Ranawana.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Ranawana, A. Persistent becoming: women’s religious thought and the global. Int Polit Rev 8, 100–127 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41312-020-00076-9

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41312-020-00076-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation