By defining first their pure and immaculate nature...

By defining first

their pure and immaculate nature, authors transformed Mary’s and

Fatima’s bodies into sacred containers . Fatima also served as a sacred

Fatima al-Zahra existed as the only female member of the holy family

and, like her father, husband and sons, remained immaculate and

infallible. Both Shiite and Christian authors also likened their holy

women to an ancient container, Noah’s ark; the women’s wombs carried

Mary and Fatima served equally important functions in political and

sectarian discourse. With such a rhetorical agenda in mind,

hagiographers accented Mary’s and Fatima’s maternal roles. These holy women, as mothers, effectively defined the limits of

community and sectarian division. By symbolically adopting believers to

their maternal care, Mary and Fatima damned unbelievers to hell. Hagiographers advertised their holy mothers by describing their homey

Both women experienced superhuman parturitions, multiplied food, and

interceded for their spiritual offspring . Fatima, the mystical nexus of

the holy family, rewards her adoptive kin who weep for her slain son,

Husayn, and escorts women into paradise on judgment day. Because these women (Mary and Fatima) are both powerful in their own

right yet intimately connected to domestic (private) space, they can be

employed by authors for a variety of purposes. Mary and Fatima can signify both female independence and agency and

submission and chastity … Whether in the seventh century or the

twenty-first, Mary’s and Fatima’s charisma affords scholars and

religious alike, an important symbol of community and religiosity that

may be manipulated in various ways. The holy women’s attendance within

the home subtly stresses the male households’ presence and dominance. In the end, however, Mary and Fatima – chosen by God as holy vessels and

chosen by men as didactic models – manage to provide moral exemplars for

women, promote standards of sanctity and faith, and chastise religious

Within such legacies the domestic indeed complements public (masculine)

authority and gains a place for feminine sanctity not easily ignored. The Prophet of Islam who speaks nothing but what has been revealed to

By defining first their pure and immaculate nature...