Gender, Islam, and Religiosity: Working Malay Women's Agency in Navigating Gender Relations and Subjectivity

This thesis explores the nuanced agency of working Malay women in urban Malaysia, specifically focusing on how they navigate gender relations in both workplace and family settings within the contexts of Islamic religiosity and modernization. Drawing on qualitative data from interviews with six Malay women, this research investigates the interplay between their professional lives and Islamic identity. The study applies Saba Mahmood's theoretical framework on agency, which posits that agency is context-specific and shaped by historical and cultural conditions, to understand how these women reconcile traditional Islamic values with modern gender norms.