Outward practice produces inward virtue rather than merely expressing it

Evidence

In contrast, for the women I worked with, outward behavioral forms were not only expressions of their interiorized religiosity but also a necessary means of acquiring it. — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 1021

Categorization

• XREF: Reverses the liberal-feminist assumption that autonomy precedes practice — connects to Spivak’s argument about the impossibility of clean self-representation. — connects to: Positional overcoming at conversion differs from experiential overcoming in daily life — Chuck Missler, The Kingdom, Power and Glory: The…, 135; Following a rule is practice mastery, not interpretation of a theory. — Chantal Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox, 332
• DEEPTHINKING: This inverts the dominant Western assumption that interiority precedes and grounds behavior, suggesting instead that embodied practice constitutes the self.