A growing body of scholarship on the political and economic subordination of women in the Muslim world has argued that widespread patriarchal attitudes toward women’s roles in public life can be ameliorated by offering progressive reinterpretations of Islamic scriptures. In this article, we explore this hypothesis with a large-scale survey experiment conducted among adult Egyptians in late 2013. In the study, a subset of respondents were exposed to an argument in favor of women’s political equality that was grounded in the Qur’ān, Islam’s holiest text. We found that this group was significantly more willing to express approval of female political leadership than those exposed to a non-religious argument in favor of women’s eligibility for political leadership. A further analysis of conditional treatment effects suggests that the religious justification for female political leadership was more likely to elicit agreement among less educated and less pious respondents, and when delivered by women and targeted at men. Our findings suggest that Islamic discourse, so often used to justify the political exclusion of women, can also be used to help empower them.

References

Adkins, T., Layman, G. C., Campbell, D. E., Green, J. C. ( 2013 ). Religious group cues and citizen policy attitudes in the United States . Politics and Religion, 6, 235 - 263 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Ahmed, L. ( 1989 ). Arab culture and writing women’s bodies . Gender Issues, 9(1), 41 - 55 .

Google Scholar

Ahmed, L. ( 1992 ). Women and gender in Islam: Historical roots of a modern debate. New Haven, CT : Yale University Press .

Google Scholar

al-Azm, S. J. ( 1997 ). Is Islam secularizable? In Ozdalga, E., Persson, S. (Eds.), Civil society, democracy, and the Muslim world (pp. 17 - 22 ). London, England : Curzon Press .

Google Scholar

Albertson, B. L. ( 2015 ). Dog-whistle politics: Multivocal communication and religious appeals . Political Behavior, 37, 3 - 26 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Alexander, A. C., Welzel, C. ( 2011 ). Islam and patriarchy: How robust is Muslim support for patriarchal values? International Review of Sociology, 21, 249 - 276 .

Google Scholar Crossref

Anderson, L. ( 1995 ). Critique of the political culture approach . In Noble, P., Brynen, R., Korany, B. (Eds.), Political liberalization and democratization in the Arab world: Theoretical perspectives (pp. 77 - 92 ). Boulder, CO : Lynne Rienner .

Google Scholar

Ayubi, N. N. M. ( 1991 ). Political Islam: Religion and politics in the Arab world. London, England : Routledge .

Google Scholar Crossref

Badran, M. ( 1996 ). Feminists, Islam, and nation: Gender and the making of modern Egypt. Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press .

Google Scholar Crossref

Barabas, J., Jerit, J. ( 2010 ). Are survey experiments externally valid? American Political Science Review, 104, 226 - 242 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Barakat, H. ( 1993 ). The Arab world: Society, culture, and state. Berkeley : University of California Press .

Google Scholar

Barlas, A. ( 2009 ). Believing Women in Islam: Unreading patriarchal interpretations of the Qur’an. Austin : University of Texas Press .

Google Scholar

Baron, R. M., Kenny, D. A. ( 1986 ). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 1173 - 1182 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Benstead, L. J. ( 2014 ). Effects of interviewer-respondent gender interaction on attitudes toward women and politics: Findings from Morocco . International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 26(3), 369 - 383 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Bland, J. M., Altman, D. G. ( 1995 ). Multiple significance tests: The Bonferroni method . British Medical Journal, 310, Article 170.

Google Scholar Crossref

Blaydes, L., Gillum, R. ( 2013 ). Religiosity-of-interviewer effects: Assessing the impact of veiled enumerators on survey response in Egypt . Politics and Religion, 6, 459 - 482 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Blaydes, L., Linzer, D. ( 2008 ). The political economy of women’s support for fundamentalist Islam . World Politics, 60, 576 - 609 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Bolzendahl, C. I., Myers, D. J. ( 2004 ). Feminist attitudes and support for gender equality: Opinion change in women and men, 1974-1998 . Social Forces, 83, 759 - 789 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Brown, K. ( 2006 ). Realising Muslim women’s rights: The role of Islamic identity among British Muslim women . Women’s Studies International Forum, 29, 417 - 430 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Bunt, G. R. ( 2009 ). iMuslims: Rewiring the house of Islam. Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press .

Google Scholar

Calfano, B. R., Djupe, P. A. ( 2009 ). God talk: Religious cues and electoral support . Political Research Quarterly, 62, 329 - 339 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Campbell, D. E., Green, J. C., Layman, G. C. ( 2011 ). The party faithful: Partisan images, candidate religion, and the electoral impact of party identification . American Journal of Political Science, 55, 42 - 58 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Charney, E., English, W. ( 2012 ). Candidate genes and political behavior . American Political Science Review, 106, 1 - 34 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Charrad, M. M. ( 2009 ). Kinship, Islam, or oil: Culprits of gender inequality? Politics & Gender, 5, 546 - 553 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Chi, G. Y. H., Chen, G., Rothmann, M., Li, N. ( 2003 ). Active control trials . In Chow, S-C (Ed.), Chow, S-C (Ed.), Encyclopedia of biopharmaceutical statistics (pp. 9 - 15 ). Boca Raton, FL : CRC Press .

Google Scholar Crossref

Cunningham, M. ( 2008 ). Changing attitudes toward the male breadwinner, female homemaker family model: Influences of women’s employment and education over the lifecourse . Social Forces, 87, 299 - 323 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Davis, N. J., Robinson, R. V. ( 2006 ). The egalitarian face of Islamic orthodoxy: Support for Islamic law and economic justice in seven Muslim-majority nations . American Sociological Review, 71, 167 - 190 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Donno, D., Russett, B. ( 2004 ). Islam, authoritarianism, and female empowerment: What are the linkages? World Politics, 56, 582 - 607 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

El Saadawi, N. ( 2007 ). The hidden face of Eve: Women in the Arab world. London, England : Zed Books .

Google Scholar

Fadel, M. ( 1997 ). Two women, one man: Knowledge, power, and gender in medieval Sunni legal thought . International Journal of Middle East Studies, 29, 185 - 204 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Fernea, E. W. ( 2010 ). In search of Islamic feminism. New York, NY : Anchor .

Google Scholar

Fish, M. S. ( 2002 ). Islam and authoritarianism . World Politics, 55, 4 - 37 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Gaines, B. J., Kuklinski, J. H., Quirk, P. J. ( 2007 ). The logic of the survey experiment reexamined . Political Analysis, 15, 1 - 20 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Gilens, M. ( 2002 ). An anatomy of survey-based experiments . In Manza, J., Lomax Cook, F., Page, B. J. (Eds.), Navigating public opinion (pp. 232 - 250 ). Oxford, UK : Oxford University Press .

Google Scholar

González, A. L. ( 2013 ). Islamic feminism in Kuwait: The politics and paradoxes. New York, NY : Palgrave Macmillan .

Google Scholar Crossref

Grimmer, J., Messing, S., Westwood, S. J. ( 2014 ). Estimating heterogeneous treatment effects and the effects of heterogeneous treatments with ensemble methods. Unpublished manuscript, Stanford University , Stanford, CA .

Google Scholar

Hasselblad, V., Kong, D. F. ( 2001 ). Statistical methods for comparison to placebo in active-control trials . Drug Information Journal, 35, 435 - 449 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals

Hessling, R. M., Traxel, N. M., Schmidt, T. J. ( 2004 ). Ceiling effect . In Lewis-Beck, M. S., Bryman, A., Liao, T. F. (Eds.), The SAGE encyclopedia of social science research methods (p. 106 ). Thousand Oaks, CA : Sage .

Google Scholar

Hilliard, M. E., Ernst, M. M., Gray, W. N., Saeed, S. A., Cortina, S. ( 2012 ). Adapting pediatric psychology interventions: Lessons learned in treating families from the Middle East . Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 37, 882 - 892 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Hudson, M. C. ( 1977 ). Arab politics: The search for legitimacy. New Haven, CT : Yale University Press .

Google Scholar

Hurd, M. D., Kapteyn, A. ( 2000 ). Anchoring and acquiescence bias in measuring assets in household surveys. New York, NY : Springer .

Google Scholar

Joseph, S. ( 1996 ). Gender and family in the Arab World . In Sabbagh, S. (Ed.), Arab women: Between defiance and restraint (pp. 194 - 202 ). Northampton, MA : Olive Branch Press .

Google Scholar

Kabeer, N. ( 1999 ). Resources, agency, achievements: Reflections on the measurement of women’s empowerment . Development and Change, 30, 435 - 464 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Kane, E. W., Macaulay, L. J. ( 1993 ). Interviewer gender and gender attitudes . Public Opinion Quarterly, 57, 1 - 28 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Karam, A. M. ( 1997 ). Women, Islamisms, and the State: Contemporary feminisms in Egypt. New York, NY : Palgrave MacMillan .

Google Scholar

Karp, J. A., Brockington, D. ( 2005 ). Social desirability and response validity: A comparative analysis of overreporting voter turnout in five countries . The Journal of Politics, 67, 825 - 840 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Landes, D. S. ( 1999 ). The wealth and poverty of nations: Why some are so rich and some so poor. New York, NY : W.W. Norton .

Google Scholar

Mahmood, S. ( 2005 ). Politics of piety: The Islamic revival and the feminist subject. Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press .

Google Scholar

McClendon, G., Riedl, R. ( 2014 ). Religion, redistribution, and participation: Evidence from an experiment in Nairobi, Kenya (Working paper).

Google Scholar

McLaughlin, B., Wise, D. ( 2014 ). Cueing god: Religious cues and voter support . Politics and Religion, 7, 366 - 394 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Mernissi, F. ( 1987 ). Beyond the veil: Male-female dynamics in modern Muslim society. Bloomington : Indiana University Press .

Google Scholar

Mitchell, T. ( 2002 ). Rule of experts: Egypt, techno-politics, modernity. Berkeley : University of California Press .

Google Scholar Crossref

Moen, P., Erickson, M. A., Dempster-McClain, D. ( 1997 ). Their mother’s daughters? The intergenerational transmission of gender attitudes in a world of changing roles . Journal of Marriage and the Family, 59, 281 - 293 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Moghadam, V. M. ( 2002 ). Islamic feminism and its discontents: Toward a resolution of the debate . Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 27, 1135 - 1171 .

Google Scholar Crossref

Moghissi, H. ( 1999 ). Feminism and Islamic fundamentalism: The limits of postmodern analysis. London, England : Zed Books .

Google Scholar

Mojab, S. ( 2001 ). Theorizing the politics of “Islamic feminism.” Feminist Review, 69, 124 - 146 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals

Mutz, D. C. ( 2011 ). Population-based survey experiments. Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press .

Google Scholar Crossref

Najmabadi, A. ( 2000 ). (Un) veiling feminism . Social Text, 18(3), 29 - 45 .

Google Scholar Crossref

Nederhof, A. J. ( 1985 ). Methods of coping with social desirability bias: A review . European Journal of Social Psychology, 15, 263 - 280 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Nielsen, R. A. ( 2013 ). The lonely Jihadist: Weak networks and the radicalization of Muslim Clerics (Doctoral dissertation). Harvard University , Cambridge, MA .

Google Scholar

Nielsen, R. A. ( 2015 ). Ethics for experimental manipulation of religion . In Desposato, S. (Ed.), Ethics and experiments: Problems and solutions for social scientists and policy professionals. London, England : Routledge .

Google Scholar

Norris, P., Inglehart, R. ( 2003 ). Rising tide: Gender equality and cultural change around the world. Cambridge, UK : Cambridge University Press .

Google Scholar

Olmsted, J. C. ( 2005 ). Gender, aging, and the evolving Arab patriarchal contract . Feminist Economics, 11(2), 53 - 78 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Patel, D. S. ( 2012 ). Concealing to reveal: The informational role of Islamic dress . Rationality and Society, 24, 295 - 323 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Pepinsky, T. B., Welborne, B. C. ( 2011 ). Piety and redistributive preferences in the Muslim world . Political Research Quarterly, 64, 491 - 505 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Plutzer, E. ( 1988 ). Work life, family life, and women’s support of feminism . American Sociological Review, 53, 640 - 649 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Podsakoff, N. P. ( 2012 ). Sources of method bias in social science research and recommendations on how to control it . Annual Review of Psychology, 63, 539 - 569 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Razack, S. ( 2005 ). Geopolitics, culture clash, and gender after September 11 . Social Justice, 32(4), 11 - 31 .

Google Scholar

Read, J. G. ( 2003 ). The sources of gender role attitudes among Christian and Muslim Arab-American women . Sociology of Religion, 64, 207 - 222 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Rizzo, H., Abdel-Latif, A.-H., Meyer, K. ( 2007 ). The relationship between gender equality and democracy: A comparison of Arab versus non-Arab Muslim societies . Sociology, 41, 1151 - 1170 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Robinson, J. ( 2005 ). Female labor force participation in the Middle East and North Africa: Technical report. Philadelphia : Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania .

Google Scholar

Ross, M. L. ( 2008 ). Oil, Islam, and women . American Political Science Review, 102, 107 - 123 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Sachedina, A. ( 2009 ). Islam and the challenge of human rights. Oxford, UK : Oxford University Press .

Google Scholar Crossref

Said, E. ( 1978 ). Orientalism: Western conceptions of the orient. New York, NY : Pantheon .

Google Scholar

Scott, R. M. ( 2009 ). A contextual approach to women’s rights in the Qur’an: Readings of 4:34 . The Muslim World, 99, 60 - 85 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Shapiro, I. ( 2006 ). The flight from reality: A response to Gunnell, Hardin, Shapiro, and Laitin . The Good Society, 15(1), 31 - 34 .

Google Scholar Crossref

Sharabi, H. ( 1988 ). Neopatriarchy: A theory of distorted change in Arab society. Oxford, UK : Oxford University Press .

Google Scholar

Singerman, D. ( 1995 ). Avenues of participation: Family, politics, and networks in urban quarters of Cairo. Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press .

Google Scholar

Temple, R., Ellenberg, S. S. ( 2000 ). Placebo-controlled trials and active-control trials in the evaluation of new treatments. Part 1: Ethical and scientific issues . Annals of Internal Medicine, 133, 455 - 463 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Wadud, A. ( 1999 ). Qur’an and woman: Rereading the sacred text from a woman’s perspective. Oxford, UK : Oxford University Press .

Google Scholar

Weber, C., Thornton, M. ( 2012 ). Courting Christians: How political candidates prime religious considerations in campaign ads . The Journal of Politics, 74, 400 - 413 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Wright, J. D. ( 1975 ). Does acquiescence bias the index of political efficacy? Public Opinion Quarterly, 39, 219 - 226 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI