Paper short abstract:

Sitaat is a religious panegyric founded on spirituality and the desire to praise and model respected women in Islam. I suggest sitaat is a practice in which women embody the divine and in turn create networks of female support to deal with the tensions of everyday life.

Paper long abstract:

I propose to speak about the practice of sitaat in Somaliland (Lewis 1998; Tiilikainen 2010) and explore the ways in which it serves as a means for women to embody spirituality and find networks of support in an all-female space. I will illuminate the current socio-religious context influencing sitaat and the ways in which women negotiate sometimes competing discourses of morality. Sitaat is a type of religious panegyrics founded on spirituality and the desire to praise and model respected women in Islam (Cawaale 2014, 2013; Kapteijns 1999). It facilitates for some women, a state of religious ecstasy (jibbo). Women who reach jibbo and those who simply attend can find relief from the stresses of daily life and gain support from the female community. I suggest that sitaat is a practice through which women embody the divine, whether through deeper knowledge of religious doctrine or achieving jibbo. Although this type of embodiment of the divine, in a private and female space, does not aim to directly challenge male hegemony in Somaliland society, it does facilitate networks of female support units to solve and deal with the tensions of everyday life. I intend to explore the following questions: In which ways do intimate relationships with the divine, through sitaat, cultivate morally acceptable ways to negotiate tension and conflict in every life? And, at the same time, how is the moral acceptance of this relationship with the divine in jeopardy in the current socio-religious context of Somaliland?