An Enchanted Modern: Gender and Public Piety in Shi'i Lebanon

by Lara Deeb

Based on two years of ethnographic research in the southern suburbs of Beirut, An Enchanted Modern demonstrates that Islam and modernity are not merely compatible, but actually go hand-in-hand. This eloquent ethnographic portrayal of an Islamic community articulates how an alternative modernity, and specifically an enchanted modernity, may be constructed by Shi'I Muslims who consider themselves simultaneously deeply modern, cosmopolitan, and pious.


In this depiction of a Shi'I Muslim community in Beirut, Deeb examines the ways that individual and collective expressions and understandings of piety have been debated, contested, and reformulated.


Women take center stage in this process, a result of their visibility both within the community, and in relation to Western ideas that link the status of women to modernity. By emphasizing the ways notions of modernity and piety are lived, debated, and shaped by "everyday Islamists," this book underscores the inseparability of piety and politics in the lives of pious Muslims.

Genres: Islam, Anthropology, Nonfiction, Middle East, Ethnography, History, Religion

288 pages, Paperback

First published February 27, 2006

Reviews

[Gwen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the third time (at least) that I had read this book, plus whatever excerpts had been assigned in the Intro to Islam class. This book made much less of an impact on me in graduate school--now, I had a much stronger knowledge of Ashura, the Kerbala Paradigm, and Hezbollah parastatal activities in south Beirut, so upon rereading, this book was not as powerful as I remembered. But this book is a great look at the daily lives of women active in women's societies in poorer Shi'i neighborhoods.

[Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this as part of a cultural anthropology class.

[Ava · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written, very informative, and very efficient.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such an illuminating and liberating read. Deeb reveals new (for me) possibilities in the discourses on modernity and religion and how both can exist simultaneously. I was startled to find that so many conversations and issues these Shi'a women in Lebanon grapple with were deeply resonant with many of the experiences and dilemmas I have faced within my own spiritual community. I left inspired by the devotion and energy of these women to their faith and to living it.

[Hafsa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lara Deeb’s first book, An Enchanted Modern: Gender and Public Piety in Shi’i Lebanon is a timely and cutting edge work that portrays and addresses the relationship between gender, religiosity, and modernity in a contemporary small Shi’i suburb called Al-Dahiyya, which is located in the south of Beirut in Lebanon. The book is very timely as it was published in the year 2006 and adds a different perspective to the academic discourses regarding religion and modernity in public life. The book seeks to primarily engage and deconstruct the notion that to be pious is to be anti-modernity, especially within an Islamic context. Although there are a few pitfalls in some of the conclusions she raises and in her methodology, I believe the author, by engaging her theoretical analyses with practical examples from her interviews and experiences with the women of Al-Dahiyya, does an excellent job in defending her thesis.

An Enchanted Modern is timely and relevant in the contemporary period because Lara Deeb is interested in dislodging all these assumptions made about women, Islam, and the role of religion. In the preface, she states that she seeks to challenge two assumptions. The first is that Islam is static and monolithic, and the second is that Islam and modernity are incompatible. Her book is able to intertwine the two and show that not only is Islam and modernity compatible, but in fact, the current Islamist movements, especially the women’s movement that she observes in Al-Dahiyya, are a product of modernity, not a reaction against it.

[Bill DeGenaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really superb ethnography of the Shi'i suburbs in south Beirut. Deeb manages to write for a wide audience, focusing primarily on stories, individuals, and "public" (religious/ethnic/political/national) practices of a sometimes misunderstood and marginalized community. You needn't be a social scientist to follow her analysis. In fact, experts on Lebanon may find the work lacking or theoretically thin, but I thought it was lively and interesting. Recommended for anyone who wants to understand the Shi'i faith, Islam's relationship to politics, Lebanese life, or more broadly how religion plays a role in public life.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Literally the best 21st century ethnography I've ever read. Want to know why the modernizing world is getting MORE religious - not less? You can read many contemporary sociologists. But want to know WHAT this looks like? Read Deeb. Want to know why the world might benefit from more piety, especially in conflict-ridden areas? Read Deeb. She describes the pious Shi'a women who are re-building their communities, even as decades of poverty, militant activity, and international invasion has rent them apart.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent ethnography of the Shi'i in Beruit. Falls a little short theoretically, but well worth the read. If one wants to get to know how daily life is in the Hizbollah-dominated areas of Beirut this is the book to read. It will enlighten those looking to understand Arab Shi'ism and see the banality of life, even in the 'exotic' regions of the "Other".

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

very fascinating look at the mix of gender, piety, and modernity in the Shi'i neighborhoods of southern Beirut, which are largely controlled by Hizb'allah. It should especially be of interest to those studying the Hizb'allah movement, women in Shi'i Islam, or the meeting point between Shi'i Islam and modernity.

[Iman · Rating 3 out of 5]

**Normalising public piety can widen the gap between public and private piety.
Because the newer female shi'i generations no longer make the concious choice of piety, they are at a risk of revolting against it (just as their mothers revolted against the norms of their social realities)**

[Nadia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a really solid study though at times it gave me way more detail about practice than I would ever need as someone not writing an anthropology paper. I wish there was a little more contextualisation to go with the straight up description but overall it was an enjoyable read.

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

very interesting ethnography of pious Shi'i Muslims in the suburbs of Beirut. well written for a broader audience than many anthropology books.