Islamic Shi’i ethics and the biopolitics of the maternal body

Within prescriptive Islamic frameworks, women are predominantly positioned as mothers and are discussed in link to their reproductive functions. Gender-critical analysis has previously attended to the existing textual representation of motherhood in Islamic sources, such as the association of Eve’s sinfulness with painful childbirth and the elevation of mothers to the highest spiritual positions possible. The association of femininity with reproduction has led to the generation of a large body of religious literature on the moral and ethical guidelines that regulate women’s material and physical body to predominantly ensure procreation. There are also some Islamic guidelines in regard to activities that follow childbearing. From dietary regimes to purification rituals, women’s bodies are at the center of this literature. This chapter outlines some of the most prominent Islamic ethical guidelines of body management for women before, during, and after childbearing in Islamic Shi’i ethics.