Chapter 4 focuses on the controversial practice of (self-)flagellation (tatbir), which involves using swords and knives to cut the body. This highly controversial ritual practice, which is traditionally performed by men, is increasingly practiced by Shirazi Shi‘i women. Shirazi Shi‘i women in London claim that they initiated this practice among women for the first time in 2007, which has influenced and inspired other Shi‘i women to practice tatbir in other European countries and in the Middle East, including Kuwait and recently Bahrain. The chapter examines to what extent the increasing number of women performing tatbir in Europe can be regarded as a form of female religious empowerment, thus influencing the gender dynamics within Shi‘i ritual practices not only in London but also among other Shi‘i communities in other European countries and in the Middle East.

This chapter provides an overview of the trajectories of Shi‘is in the Gulf and their presence in Europe. The Shi‘a in the Gulf consist of indigenous as well as migrant and, in some cases, also converted Shi‘is. Whether forced or voluntary, the experiences of migration and settlement among Shi‘is in Europe and the Middle East varies. Often coming from minority contexts of marginalization, discrimination, and persecution, Shi‘i experiences of migration are often different to those of other Muslim immigrants in Europe as well as in the Middle East. In the 1980s, large-scale displacement of Iraqi Shi‘i Muslims, for example, forced them to migrate through a multilocal trajectory of displacement in so-called transit countries such as Iran, other Gulf countries or neighboring countries such as Jordan or came first to European countries such as Sweden, the Netherlands or Germany and later moved to the United Kingdom. The national and transnational interactions and networks of these Shi‘i communities are discussed in this chapter to offer an overview of the various diverse Shi‘i communities present in Europe and the Middle East.

Chapter 6 focuses on the production of art in the form of poetry and sermons but also material and visual culture expressed through banners, posters, and graffiti as a form of resistance and reordering of the political system. In the context of Twelver Shi‘a Islam, writing elegies and performing them in mourning rituals has been a central element in lamenting the death of Imam Husayn. The lachrymal expressions and descriptions that characterize this lamentation poetry have the religious and ritualistic function of metaphorically identifying the participants with Imam Husayn and uniting believers in the fight for his cause. This chapter focuses mainly on lamentation poetry written by men but performed by women during women-only majalis in Kuwait and London. It discusses how poetry, as an artistic production, is politicized locally but its impact is transnationally transmitted. The chapter also examines women’s use of forms of resistance art to articulate their own definition of power and authority within both private and public spaces in Bahrain.

In 2014, I visited a private women-only religious gathering (majlis, pl. majālis) organized by an Iraqi Shiʿi in her house in London. When I entered, everyone was still busy preparing the majlis: some were sorting out the seating area by laying down additional cushions on the carpet while others were making food and drinks in the kitchen. The smell of black tea, cardamom, and saffron filled the house. The walls were covered in black with numerous Islamic Shiʿi embroideries in yellow, green, and red hanging throughout the rooms. Various pictures of the Prophet’s grandson, Imam Husayn, and other Shiʿi figures were displayed. The rooms were decorated in a style to aesthetically evoke a palpable atmosphere of commemoration and imageries of death, loss, and pain. It only took a few minutes until the house was filled with women. The rooms on the ground floor were all used for the majlis, and became very crowded. Once the female reciter (mullāya, pl. mullāyāt) entered, lights were dimmed in order to evoke a sad atmosphere in the room. The mullāya started her majlis by greeting the Prophet and his family (ahl al-bayt) and sending her commemoration wishes to everyone in the room in memory of the death of Imam Husayn, whom Shiʿis commemorate yearly during the month of Muharram. Such commemoration rituals involve various bodily expressions and emotional experiences such as weeping and self-beating. During such majālis, some women stand up and form a circle, rhythmically moving their bodies while beating their breasts and faces. The other women, who remain sitting, support the rhythmic self-beating of the standing women through their own loud weeping and hitting their legs, breasts, and faces in unison.

The final chapter brings the discussion back to the definitions of resistance, female agency, and the link to the aesthetization of politics. In order to understand Shi‘i women’s self-inflicted pain practices as a sign of power and resistance, we need to examine the various structures and forms of power existing within the social structures and fields within which women operate. Shi‘i women in this study share and articulate nationally and transnationally their role in contributing to the historical continuation of Shi‘i actions of resistance through the introduction of a new definition of the new Shi‘i woman, representing it as a declaration of their true "Shi‘a-ness." Shi‘i women use performativity, language, symbols, and signs to construct a new version of the "Shi‘i woman" that is able to counter and resist male hegemonic power structures. As a conclusion for the book, the chapter argues that through women’s ritual practices of self-inflicted pain, a new female aesthetization of the feminine subject is defined, produced, and articulated on and through the female body. The newly defined Shi‘i woman is a symbol of the performativity of power dynamics but also the performativity of women’s actions resisting existing power structures that lead to a female Shi‘i transnational collective reordering of power.

This chapter covers the historical and contemporary development of the rites of mourning within Shi‘i Islam. References from historical sources on the performance of mourning rituals since the Umayyad period lay the foundation for a critical discussion on what constitutes a ritual and when the performance of commemoration rituals started. Most women interviewed believed Zaynab, Husayn’s sister, to have initiated mourning practices for the first time in order to keep the memory of the killing of her brother alive. Others, mainly within Shi‘i scholarship, see the initiation of the practice as having been shaped later by men. This chapter serves as the foundation for the whole book as it introduces each ritual practice, understood as an act of resistance, with a particular focus on the role women play therein.

The chapter discusses the various forms of the performativity of the political and examines the enactment of the Karbala paradigm through theatrical performances (tashabih) and the ritual of mashy ‘ala al-jamur (walking on hot coals). The individual and collective emotions that are generated through tashabih and their effect on the body play an important role. The emotional pain caused by the oral narration together with the visual performance and enactment of historical events are interwoven with the actual physical pain that is self-imposed through Shi‘i ritual practices. The reciprocal relation between emotions, the body, and visuality is discussed in more detail through examining this particular act of resistance.

The chapter examines the historical theological and hagiographical as well as contemporary portrayal of the figure of Fatima. It analyzes the significance of Fatima’s presence in women-only majalis in the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom and Kuwait and to what extent her images and roles support women’s agency and contribute to the attainment of eschatological gender equality within Shi‘i ritual practices. Fatima is believed to be spiritually and, in some cases, physically present during commemoration ritual practices held by Shi‘i believers remembering the death of her son Imam Husayn. Fatima’s apparitions and other miraculous events during majalis are linked to the transformation of women’s empowerment within their communities. This is in addition to women’s recent increasing contribution to Shi‘i ritual practices, particularly those that traditionally have been regarded as male-dominated practices. Fatima’s apparitions are seen as a divine intervention in support of women’s transgression of these specific patriarchal religious boundaries. Women’s apparition narratives are instrumental in overcoming gender inequality in the performance of religious practices. Women’s claims for their right to participate in certain Shi‘i ritual practices is strengthened and, to a certain extent, legitimized through Fatima’s appearances.