How do North African Muslim women enact themselves as believers and persons of piety? Like Muslim men, they can do so by fulfilling the five main religious obligations: the profession of faith, prayer five times a day, alms giving, fasting, and the pilgrimage to Mecca. An analysis of how women deal with these pillars of Islam shows that gendered notions and practices, in particular those concerning purity, life stage roles, and the division of labor, impact on how North African women can express their religiosity and how this affects their position as believers.

The performance of any r…