Programs in Anthropology are proud to announce that Dr. Amina Tawasil has received an Honorable Mention from the 2025 Clifford Geertz Prize in the Anthropology of Religion, the book award for the Society for the Anthropology of Religion. Dr. Tawasil earned this recognition for her book Paths Made by Walking: The Work of Howzevi Women in Iran. Dr. Tawasil's book can be found at this link.
Comments from the Geertz Prize Committee Members included the following:
"This is one of the richest ethnographies of Muslim women in recent years, and its significance is increased by its main subject of study, namely, Iranian religious women who identify with the cause of the Islamic revolution and are involved in rigorous Islamic learning and pedagogy. Despite many adversities and obstacles, the author manages to write an extraordinarily detailed, intimate, and sensitive ethnography. The prose is lucid and fluent, and the author really has done the field and the wider world a commendable service in describing, with great care, candor, and unmistakable bravery.”
“Tawasil curates an immersive ethnography that offers a groundbreaking window into how howzevi (seminarian) women in post-revolutionary Iran navigate Islamic education and, often from positions of concealment, wield real political and social influence, challenging simplistic portrayals of passive religiosity. By centering the women’s own senses of self, their intellectual labor, and their nuanced practices—from veiling to disputation—she disrupts dominant Western narratives about autonomy and visibility, revealing power refracted through religious commitment rather than secular norms.”
We congratulate Dr. Tawasil on this wonderful achievement!