The anthropologist projected her own liberal assumptions onto piety practitioners

Evidence

I was taken aback by this response because I had expected Nadia to tell Iman not to think about this issue any further, since not only had the man broken the rules for proper conduct by approaching Iman directly instead of her parents, but he was also already married. I had come to respect Nadia’s ability to uphold rigorous standards of pious behavior: on numerous occasions I had seen her give up opportunities that would have accrued her material and social advantages for the sake of her principles. So a week later, when I was alone with Nadia, I asked her the question that had been bothering me : why did she not tell Iman to cut off any connection with this man? — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 1137

Categorization

• XREF: This is the classic ethnographic ‘surprise’ moment—Mahmood’s own liberal-feminist frame misfires, exactly echoing Spivak’s point about the epistemic limits of Western observers.