Embodied Oppression or Fleshy Resistance: Saudi Female Leaders’ Body as a Space for Conflicting Interplay Between Control and Resistance

This paper sets to provide an embodied theorisation of the resistance of female leaders in Higher Education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) to the system of male dominion. Based on a multiple case study of female leaders in Saudi academia, our research makes three contributions. First, we analyse how bodies are socialised to be subjugated to the masculine norms that shape the entire socio-cultural structure of the society and the setting of academia in the KSA. Second, we examine different strategies through which women use their bodies to undermine regimes of gender inequality while simultaneously trying to safeguard their claim to virtue and piety. Finally, we argue that the analyses of resistance to the regime of masculine domination that is shaped within religious teachings necessitate taking into account the aspects of religiosity of the female body and its attempt to shape an ethical and virtuous subject.