Muslim women's agency; getting past the binary trap

Abstract Although feminist theorizing on Muslim women's agency has come a long way, recent models reflect a one‐dimensional conception of agency that reinvigorates problematic binaries and undermines feminist politics. To address these limitations, the author focuses on the interpersonal arena where agency involves not only doing but also the cultivation and consolidation of relationships. Ethnographic data reveal three key findings: (1) Agency is multidimensional, encompassing both display work and the recruitment of others. (2) When we foreground agency's relational dimensions, binary conceptions fall apart—forms of agency that appear to involve compliance with dominant norms are revealed as also being resistant to an alternate set of norms favored by others. (3) Relational aspects of agency are socially patterned by social structures, such as class, that restrict marginalized actors from activating relationships in service to extension, a capacity to extend the locus of action over time and space. By examining these diverse dimensions of agency, the article underscores the connection between agency, exclusion, and inequality. This analysis not only challenges restrictive binaries within feminist thought but also opens up possibilities for feminist intervention.