Disenchanted Arab Women: Leaving Islam in the Age of Social Media

By unearthing the intricate interplay between the cognitive and the affective, this study examines the trajectories of nonreligious Arab women, arguing that emotions such as anger and aversion play a role in triggering “active engagement”, ultimately leading to doubt and religious disengagement. What is particular about these trajectories is that they emerge from the experiences of formerly religiously-committed and pious women. This urges us to rethink scholarship that frames piety as a fixed closure in the process of moral self-transformation. By examining the role of the internet in the process, this article seeks to capture moments of disruption in which an idealised vision of Islam is confronted with newly discovered information that unsettles my interlocutors’ religious attachment.