 | Women, Religion, and Space in China: Islamic Mosques & Daoist Temples, Catholic Convents & Chinese Virgins Subjects: Geography; Humanities; Social Sciences; Human Geography; Religion; Sociology & Social Policy; Cultural Geography; Feminist Geography; Chinese & Japanese Religions; Sociology of Religion; Islam - Religion; Gender Studies; What enables women to hold firm in their beliefs in the face of long years of hostile persecution by the Communist party/state? How do women withstand daily discrimination and prolonged hardship under a Communist regime which held rejection of religious beliefs and practices as a patriotic duty? Through the use of archival and ethnographic sources and of rich life testimonies, this book provides a rare glimpse into how women came to find solace and happiness in the flourishing, female-dominated traditions of local Islamic women's mosques, Daoist nunneries and Catholic convents in China. These women passionately - often against unimaginable odds - defended sites of prayer, education and congregation as their spiritual home and their promise of heaven, but also as their rightful claim to equal entitlements with men. Maria Jaschok is Director of the International Gender Studies at the University of Oxford. Shui Jingjun is a Henan Provincial Academy of Social Sciences researcher. |
