Beyond the officially sacred: religion, secularism, and the body in the production of subjectivity

Recent calls for new geographies of religion draw attention to how religion shapes the formation of subjectivity. Focusing on pious Muslim women's new veiling practices in Istanbul, I chart possible geographical analyses not only of religion but also of secularism as the two phenomena intersect and compete with one another in complex and often contradictory ways. I approach veiling as a gendered embodied spatial practice that reveals the intertwined production of bodies and subjectivities. Social meanings, the wider political context and spatial regimes that govern everyday life, as well as individual experiences, shape the production of corporeal piety. For the case I analyze, the hegemonic ideology of secularism, the highly politicized issue of veiling, and the informal and formal restrictions on the headscarf all come into play. This analysis offers new insights about the geographies of the body, subjectivity, and the city by highlighting the significant role religion and secularism play in their production.