ISLAMISERINGEN AF DEN NYE GENERATION: Rapport fra en islamisk skole i Kairo

Resumé

Lene Kofoed Rasmussen: Islamization of

the New Generation. Report from an

Islamic School in Cairo

The article takes as its starting point the

attitudes towards education among female

Islamists who are active in an Islamic school

in Cairo. It is a private school that aims to be

more Islamic than the ordinary governmental

school. The women whose positions

are quoted in the article are all engaged in

Islamism and carry out da'wa, missionary

activities, as teachers and/or mothers. These

women argue for a moderation of Islamic

precepts such as the assertion of the absolute

authority of elders, the demand for

obedience, the requirement of the veil, and

the segregation of genders. Through their

work of Islamizing the new generation, the

women themselves undergo a process of

subjectification; they represent the Muslim

woman as an active and responsible subject

worthy of imitation. The author argues that a

potential effect of the process of subjectification

is a new image of the Muslim woman,

challenging other potent images prevalent in

the Egyptian public, such as the Muslim

woman as a temptress and disturber of the

public order, and the Muslim woman as a

passive victim.