ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that religious fiction by Shia Arab women in Iraq emerges as a direct response to the feelings of isolation experienced by their communities during the state-led secularization projects of the 1960s and 1970s. It analyzes two religious novels that reflect the gradual ascendancy of religious sentiment and discourses among young Shia women and girls: Amina al-Sadr’s Virtue Prevails (1969) and Khawla al-Qazwini’s When a Man Thinks (1993). The chapter ultimately charts the gradual expansion of the fictional imaginary of pious authors, from localized domestic dramas to more explicitly political works, where there is an “overflow” of religiosity into public spaces in attempt to claim ownership of these spaces and thus vie for political power.
