Gender and the (In)divisibility of Contested Sacred Places: The Case of Women for the Temple. Issue 4 (2nd May 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ben Shitrit, Lihi
• Is Part Of: Politics and religion. Volume 10:Issue 4(2017)
• Page Start: 812
• Page End: 839
• Publication Date: 2017-05-02
• Subjects: Religion and politics -- Periodicals; 322.105
• DOI: 10.1017/S1755048317000281
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1755-0483

Abstract

Abstract: Contested sacred sites, over which different religious groups assert claims to exclusivity, have drawn scholarly attention to the spatial interaction between religion and politics. However, the gendered dimensions of inter-communal religious-political disputes over sacred space, and women's roles in these site-specific conflicts, have been largely neglected. Using a case study of Orthodox Jewish women's activism for access to Temple Mount al-Haram al-Sharif, this article demonstrates how attention to gender and to women's engagement in inter-communal conflict over sacred places can illuminate unique intra-communal processes that aim to make a contested sacred site increasingly indivisible for parties to the conflict.