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“Doing Good, Like Sayyida Zaynab”: Lebanese Shi‘I Women’s Participation in the Public Sphere

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Religion, Social Practice, and Contested Hegemonies

Part of the book series: Culture and Religion in International Relations ((CRIR))

Abstract

Over the past two decades, women’s participation in public welfare has increased substantially in the southern al-dahiyya al-janubiyya suburbs of Beirut (henceforth al-Dahiyya).1 The visibility of women in public activities has accompanied the establishment or growth of numerous Islamic community welfare and/or charitable associations, known as jam‘iyyat khayriyya. Both phenomena reflect a strong commitment to public welfare and community service in the area; a commitment linked to the religious and political groundings of the Shi‘i Islamic movement in Lebanon, most prominently represented today by Hizbullah. Particularly for women in this area of Beirut, commitment to community service, al-iltizam bi-l-‘amal al-ijtima‘i, is manifest on a personal level as well as a public one. Moreover, it extends well beyond paying one’s khums (a Shi‘i religious tax) or seeking employment in the administrative offices of jam‘iyyat to volunteering long hours in face-to-face work assisting the poor.

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Authors
  1. Lara Deeb
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut), Essen, Germany

    Armando Salvatore (Senior Research Fellow) (Senior Research Fellow)

  2. Institute of Social Science, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany

    Armando Salvatore (Senior Research Fellow) (Senior Research Fellow)

  3. University of California, Irvine, USA

    Mark LeVine (Associate Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History, Culture, and Islamic Studies) (Associate Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History, Culture, and Islamic Studies)

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© 2005 Armando Salvatore and Mark LeVine

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Deeb, L. (2005). “Doing Good, Like Sayyida Zaynab”: Lebanese Shi‘I Women’s Participation in the Public Sphere. In: Salvatore, A., LeVine, M. (eds) Religion, Social Practice, and Contested Hegemonies. Culture and Religion in International Relations. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403979247_4

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