Understanding the Link between Islamic Religiosity and Political Gender Equality in the MENA between 2001 and 2014

Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) publics report one of the world’s lowest rates of support for gender equality, including low support for female political representation. Many authors ascribe this to patriarchal Islamic worldviews. However, previous country-specific studies reported mixed results on the relation between religiosity and gender equality attitudes, and MENA citizens and (Muslim) feminist movements in the MENA have stressed emancipatory interpretations of Islam. Still, large-scale public opinion studies that assess how different dimensions of Islamic religiosity relate to support for women as political leaders across the MENA seem lacking. This study aims to fill this lacuna by providing a systematic assessment studying how and under which conditions individual religiosity has a positive or negative impact on support for female political leaders. To provide a nuanced understanding of the linkage between Islamic religiosity and support for political gender equality, a dual socialization-opportunity framework, recognizing both (early-life) socialization and agency, will be developed and tested. In its core, this framework (a) proposes MENA citizens – women particularly – are not only passively socialized, but also have the opportunity of agency, drawing attention to socio-economical empowerment as a moderating force; (b) realizes that the MENA countries are religiously, politically, and economically diverse; and (c) proposes these different structural and cultural forces (e.g. the Arab Spring) shape the meaning and impact of religiosity (i) in people’s formative years and (ii) during their lives. Empirically, 51 combined and synchronized World Values Surveys and Arab Barometer surveys on 15 MENA countries between 2001 and 2014 will be studied. To these data multilevel analyses will be applied as well as country-disaggregated analysis.