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:

Uplifting the Voices of Women in Muslim Religious Spaces

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

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

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.

This event is part of the Cambridge Festival and is coordinated by The Middle East in Cambridge.

At 6:30pm a spread of foods will be shared with attendees.

Booking is essential!