In Muslim-majority Niger, adolescent schoolgirls have recently become the prime target of vindictive, jealous jinn. Amid a perceived epidemic of immorality, religious authorities and ordinary people alike describe the victims' susceptibility to spirit attacks in the language of porosity and sensuality. Meanwhile, intensifying critiques of practices of beautification signal acute concerns with the protection of bodily boundaries. In my talk, I explore how, as permeable interfaces of active spiritual traffic, female bodies in Niger constitute a useful tool in the hands of religious actors yearning to re-moralize society. I trace the multiple demands that a surge of spirit attacks selectively places on female bodies and female aspirations and I consider how Muslim moralities become attached to a female capacity for absorption that manifests through diverse experiences, including “natural” openness, impiety, prettification, and emotionality.

Adeline Masquelier is Professor of Anthropology at Tulane University. As a sociocultural anthropologist, she has conducted research in Niger, West Africa, for over thirty years on topics such as religion, gender, health, youth cultures, education, and environmental issues and authored three books based on her research.