Women, agency and religion: social and legal issues in the Mediterranean public space

Agency and religion play a very specific role in regulating the role and rights of women in the Mediterranean region public sphere. The possibility of women’s agency to determine their own life choices finds opposing dynamics between the two shores of Mare Nostrum. In both secular and religious contexts, new feminist thinking and a new conception of women are emerging to redefine normative and social roles. While constitutional and private law reforms describe an arduous but successful affirmation of gender equality, a new understanding of women’s agency is changing religions from within. Women’s theological reflection emancipates and provides an important framework for interpreting internal dynamics, positions and roles. In external contexts, this process is also transforming religious women’s participation. The Arab Springs has highlighte a new role for Muslim women as agents of political and social change. In Southern Europe, religious women have developed a new form of active participation in the social context. On both sides of the Mediterranean, gender intersects with religious identity. In this way, religion becomes an instrument of women’s autonomy. However, in their struggle to re-appropriate public discourse, women’s agency faces resistance from religions. As a result, even in countries where constitutional reforms proclaim the principle of non-discrimination and equality, violence and restrictions on women’s presence in the public sphere are on the rise. These two dynamics call for a discussion of the role of the law in defining the status of women in society, as well as the role of religion in achieving gender equality throughout the Mediterranean region. The legal affirmation of gender rights on both sides of the Mediterranean requires an effectiveness that depends on its ability to penetrate socio-cultural realities and traditions.