Fasting, Food, and Women’s Religious Spaces

Women have been historically excluded from and marginalized within religious spaces. This event brings together scholars who have carried out research on women in religious movements and communities connected to Islam, Judaism, and Christianity.  It sheds light on how women experience, and shape, religious spaces connected to these major world religions, and the central, empowering role that food-sharing plays in these spaces.

During the first part of the event (5:30-6:30pm), each scholar will share some reflections. At 6:30pm a spread of foods will be shared with attendees.

 Note: Registration for this event is required. Please be sure to let us know if you have any dietary restrictions as well. 

Event Programme

Organized by Iman Dawood

Chaired by Grace Turney

Presentations

Uplifting the Voices of Women in Muslim Religious Spaces

By Iman Dawood

A recently published report, "My British Mosque", has found that around one third of British mosques have no space for women to pray. In this presentation, I share reflections from fieldwork carried out in mosques in London between 2017-2019, reflecting on women’s exclusion from some Muslim spaces. Using examples from my fieldwork, I demonstrate the important role that Muslim women’s spaces play for women in London, and how mundane acts like food-sharing in these spaces work to empower Muslim women.

Loaded Bagels: Why interfaith food-sharing is a serious business

By Peach Hoyle

Academics and practitioners alike speak in dismissive tones about "bagel and samosa" interfaith - events structured around polite conversation and the sharing of culturally relevant food. Typically, these encounters are understood to be unfit for the serious business of interfaith community-building. However, my fieldwork suggests that in women's interfaith groups food-sharing is understood as an important part of building relationships across difference. This talk unpacks the relationships between food, faith and gender in interfaith encounter.

Fainting, Fasting, Feasting: Prophetic Women in the 17th Century

By Tanya Kundu

During the 1640s and 50s, the aftermath of the Civil War, the execution of King Charles I, and short-lived time of Oliver Cromwell in Parliament created a great deal of political and religious uncertainty. As a result, many radical religious groups were formed, and with them came a unique moment in women’s writing across England. These decades were filled with prophetic and political pamphlets from radical religious women, many of whom were attributed a holy status due to their miraculous feats of fasting. This talk will discuss two such women: Anna Trapnel and Sarah Wight, and will think about their relationship to food, fasting, and the forms of hospitality that they offered during these periods.

Presenter Biographies

Iman Dawood is a Postdoctoral Research and Outreach officer at the Centre for Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge. She holds a PhD in Political Science from the Department of Government at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Her research reflects on themes related to religious and cultural change, political participation and activism, and gender.

Peach Hoyle is a third-year PhD student in the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge. Their research looks at gender and politics in interfaith encounter, specifically focusing on women's interfaith groups in contemporary Britain.

Tanya Kundu is a Research Associate in Theology, Gender and Sexuality at the University of Cambridge. Her PhD focussed on themes of precariousness and marginality in Christian Theology, putting Augustine in critical and creative dialogue with queer and crip theory. She has been published recently in Modern Theology and Literature and Theology.