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Paper short abstract:

The paper examines how three different approaches to dua, a religious register of prayer invocating God, shape the interactions between Turkish state women preachers and their female congregants. It traces an emergence of a conservative understanding of human agency centering on intention.

Paper long abstract:

The paper describes the worldview of Turkish conservative Muslim women via the lens of dua, a prayer of invocation and request to God, which this paper treats as an exemplar of religious registers available among Turkish Muslims. It examines how three different approaches to dua shape the interactions between state women preachers and their female congregants, shedding light on what is “conservative” about conservative Turkish Muslim women. Starting from the lamentation and aspiration evident in these women’s desire to incorporate more dua in their lives, I situate their enthusiasm within the historical context of Turkish language-related reforms, which caused a palpable rupture in religious languages and created a “need” for ordinary conservative women to learn dua from state preachers. The state preachers’ lessons exhibit what each approach to dua aims to conserve. First, the functional approach ensures Islam’s relevance in addressing everyday worldly problems. Secondly, the submission-centered approach sustains the potential to pursue asecular forms of life. Lastly, the medicinal approach secures the possibility of human action when all other options that do not treat other individuals as instruments or objects of one’s action have been exhausted. I argue that each approach, with its peculiar takes on intention, involves an understanding of human agency and its limitation contrasted to God’s unlimited agency, forming the core of Turkish Muslim conservative women’s worldview. In conclusion, I contemplate how this lesson on the limit of human agency and humility as a virtue parallels political conservatism, fostering popular support for “authoritarian” politics.