scholarly journals Re/claiming our identities : thinking through Islamophobia, the veil, and "the Muslim woman" in Canadian cultural productions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ameera Basmadji
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
The West ◽  
Cultural Productions ◽  
Important Concern ◽  
Muslim Immigrants ◽  
Canadian Context ◽  
The Veil ◽  
Muslim Communities

Western, Islamophobic, and Islamic discourses have resulted in a contested terrain of representations through which the lives of Muslims have been debated and consumed. Post 9/11, Muslims assumed a hyper visibility evident in their being stigmatized in the West as terrorists, and as threats to national security, democratic values, and time-honoured cultural practices in Western societies. As such, the presence of Muslim communities in Western nations is raising questions about national identity and belonging, particularly in the Canadian context. An important concern is to identify and interrogate the points of conflict and tension between Muslims and non-Muslim Canadians, particularly in regard to issues of national identity and citizenship. By focusing specifically on recent cultural productions, including a film, a television sitcom, and a novel by female Muslim Canadians, the analysis will demonstrate the extent to which the voices of Muslim women intervene into dominant Western discourses about Islam and popular representations of Muslims in the West. Special attention will be given to the symbolism of the veil to show how it has become the central marker of "difference" and one of the main "problems" affecting Western perception of Muslim immigrants and these communities' integration and assimilation into Canadian and Western societies.

scholarly journals Re/claiming our identities : thinking through Islamophobia, the veil, and "the Muslim woman" in Canadian cultural productions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ameera Basmadji
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
The West ◽  
Cultural Productions ◽  
Important Concern ◽  
Muslim Immigrants ◽  
Canadian Context ◽  
The Veil ◽  
Muslim Communities

Western, Islamophobic, and Islamic discourses have resulted in a contested terrain of representations through which the lives of Muslims have been debated and consumed. Post 9/11, Muslims assumed a hyper visibility evident in their being stigmatized in the West as terrorists, and as threats to national security, democratic values, and time-honoured cultural practices in Western societies. As such, the presence of Muslim communities in Western nations is raising questions about national identity and belonging, particularly in the Canadian context. An important concern is to identify and interrogate the points of conflict and tension between Muslims and non-Muslim Canadians, particularly in regard to issues of national identity and citizenship. By focusing specifically on recent cultural productions, including a film, a television sitcom, and a novel by female Muslim Canadians, the analysis will demonstrate the extent to which the voices of Muslim women intervene into dominant Western discourses about Islam and popular representations of Muslims in the West. Special attention will be given to the symbolism of the veil to show how it has become the central marker of "difference" and one of the main "problems" affecting Western perception of Muslim immigrants and these communities' integration and assimilation into Canadian and Western societies.

scholarly journals The Muslim Veil in North America

2004 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 110-112
Author(s):  
Shabana Mir
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
North America ◽  
Historical Development ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
Basic Information ◽  
The West ◽  
Academic Texts ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Veil

When it comes to Muslims in the West, nothing is a more sensational visualsymbol than the hijab. Due to the current Muslim and non-Muslim fixationon it, scholarly examination of hijab and related issues is necessary.The Muslim Veil in North America examines some of its historical, sociological/anthropological, and theological aspects. Part 1 engages with theveil’s hyper-visibility in Canada. Since the book does not engage with theAmerican experience, I am not sure why the title refers to North America.I enjoyed part 2 immensely, and will use it as a reference on the subject.The bulk of this section explores the historical development of the veil’stheological status and nature. This book is different from, say, Maudoodi’sPurdah, which sees the veil in its contemporary form as a product of historicalprocesses.This book is dedicated to diasporic Muslim women, although introductorymaterial in various chapters addresses readers unfamiliar with Islam. Undergraduates will appreciate its accessibility in comparison tomost academic texts, and it will make the subject comprehensible to layreaders. Unfortunately, this means that the book wavers between being anacademic (education, anthropology, and sociology) and a lay read. This isnot because the entire book is tailored to different kinds of readers, butbecause its two parts are rather disjointed. Part 1 addresses a more lay andintroductory social science-related reader with basic information; part 2, onthe other hand, is a highly specialized examination of exegetical and hadithhistory.The editors, in addressing a gaping void in the literature, possiblyattempt to do too much: specialized theology, history, politics, anthropology,and sampling of “voices.” I would have preferred it to be more selective.Also, “let the voices speak” is a commendable approach, but after a certainpoint we should go beyond it. There is also a line between “reportage syndrome,”writing without an adequate theoretical framework, and skillfulacademic writing, which allows contextualized voices to be heard by fellowacademics within the social sciences. I would also have preferred that thetheology and sociology chapters be connected by common threads ...

Nonfiction Form and the “Truth” about Muslim Women in Iranian Documentary

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-111
Author(s):  
Niki Akhavan
Keyword(s):  
Muslim Women ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
Women Filmmakers ◽  
Feminist Scholarship ◽  
Iranian Women ◽  
The West ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Veil

More than three decades of hostile relations between Iran and the West have meant that images about Iran and Iranian women circulate in a charged political environment. In this geopolitical context, Iranian women filmmakers have often found receptive audiences abroad who turn to documentaries as sites to reveal the truths of contemporary Iran. The enthusiasm for these works, however, also exerts pressures on filmmakers to adhere to familiar narratives about Iran and Iranian women or risk losing their audiences. Focusing on Nahid Sarvestani's Prostitution behind the Veil (2004) and Mahvash Sheikholeslami's Where Do I Belong? (2007), this article examines two tendencies in recent Iranian documentary. The former film exemplifies the prevalent trend of repeating troubling but familiar tropes about Islam and Muslim women, while the latter is an example of attempts to provide a more nuanced picture of Iran's social and political problems. Placing these films in the broader context of the history of nonfiction films in Iran, the article also draws from both feminist scholarship on representations of the Muslim world and longstanding debates within documentary studies to show the high stakes of producing films about Iran and to suggest that documentary works by and about Iranian women should be more rigorously interrogated for their ethical and political implications.

Difference Unveiled: Bulgarian National Imperatives and the Re-dressing of Muslim Women, 1878-1989

1997 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 169-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Neuburger
Keyword(s):  
European Society ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
Large Degree ◽  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
National Identities ◽  
The West ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The Veil

Recent scholarship has poignantly argued that the founding of modern “Western” nation-states is to a large degree a product of their drawn out colonial encounters with “the East.” It is convincingly argued that “the West” constructed its own self-assured, national and supra-national identities in the process of “discovering” and “inventing” the exotic yet inferior “East.” Furthermore, a diverse body of scholarship has delineated the central role of discourses on gender and sexuality in the development of Western societies and, in particular, nation-states. If the image of “pious mother” became key to Western national self-images, it was the counter-image of the women of the harem—veiled, oppressed, and mysterious—that typified representations of Eastern barbarism. Furthermore, Western economic and political penetration of its colonies was to a large degree justified by the “gendering” of the “irrational Orient” versus the “rational Occident.” The “liberation” of Islamic women from their “oppression” as typified by the veil became central to Western “civilizing” missions, which had far-reaching echoes on the frontiers of European society.

scholarly journals The effect of Islamophobia on Business Profits

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Faradilla Taufiqa ◽  
Puji Handayati
Keyword(s):  
Social Stigma ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
Community Change ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Indonesian Population ◽  
Business Profit ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Veil ◽  
Muslim Communities

Islam is the religion of rahmatan lil’alamin that brings prosperity on earth. The majority of the Indonesian population are Muslims. However, the reality is that Islam has been hit by a number of negative issues due to a series of terrorism events in various countries in the world including Indonesia. The media also contributed to the rise in islamophobia. As a human society who need income for their survival, Muslim communities seen islamophobia causing issues for their businesses. The rising number of cases of discrimination against Muslim women is causing a disruption in their socio-economic life. In Indonesia, there is also discrimination against veiled women, as the veil is viewed as a social stigma, associated with religious fanaticism and even terrorism. This study used qualitative approach in the form of transcendental phenomenology research to ascertain the effect of islamophobia on profits for businesses owned by Muslims especially the veiled woman in several region in Indonesia, that is in Tulungagung, Pasuruan and Malang. The results of this study demonstrate that there was a community change, with less tolerance extended towards Muslims. However, this rising Islamophobia did not affect the profits as long as the seller provided quality products and quality services that are able to satisfy customers. Keywords: Islamophobia, Business Profit, Islamic Accounting

scholarly journals FENOMENA CADAR DALAM PROSES HIJRAH (Analisa Hukum dan Presepsi Masyarakat Pengguna Cadar)

Bayani ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-42
Author(s):  
Ace Somantri
Keyword(s):  
Research Method ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Muslim Community ◽  
Absolute Necessity ◽  
The Awakening ◽  
Differences Of Opinion ◽  
The Veil ◽  
Muslim Communities

The issue of radicalism and fundamentalism is still in the news aimed at Muslims. The phenomenon of hijrah has become a trend among the Muslim community, Anis Baswedan responded positively as an indication of the awakening of Islam, but there are differences of opinion, according to Ahmad Muzaki that the phenomenon of hijrah must have assistance in order to avoid entering the door of their version of terrorism. One of the phenomena of hijrah is that many Muslim women use the veil / niqob. The formulation of the problem that is used as the limitation of this study is more focused on understanding Islamic law and perceptions of the use of the veil / niqob among the hijrah community. The research method used is through a descriptive qualitative approach. The results showed that there was a diversity of opinions regarding the use of the niqab / veil, giving rise to a diversity of beliefs about the perfection of Muslims (for Muslim women) in believing by using the niqab / veil. Muslim communities who are in the process of hijrah believe that faith is an absolute necessity and must be present in every Muslim. As a consequence of this faith, Muslims are obliged to carry out the stipulated syari'at, including in terms of dress.

scholarly journals “Un/Veiled: Feminist Art from the Arab/Muslim Diaspora”

1970 ◽  
pp. 16-20
Author(s):  
Rachel Epp Buller
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
Feminist Art ◽  
The West ◽  
Arab Woman ◽  
Arab Muslim ◽  
The Veil

Images of Muslim women in global popular culture convey ideas of restriction and oppression: to many in the West, the covered Arab woman appears a victim, unable to express herself in word and deed. Artists and writers from within Arab cultures have challenged such simplistic readings, some offering alternative readings of living behind the veil, others offering the possibility of a feminist existence within an apparently oppressive society, all challenging the Orientalist mindset implied by such assumptions.

scholarly journals Empowering Muslims in Leila Aboulela’s Minaret and Mohja Kahf’s The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Women Writers ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
Arab Women ◽  
The West ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
Literary Research ◽  
The Veil

Diasporic Arab writers substantially differ in how they represent aspects of contemporary Arabic culture(s) in their literary works and diasporic Arab women writers have represented Islam even more differently in their works. The study investigates how Islam is portrayed in the fiction of two diasporic Arab women writers, Leila Aboulela (b. 1964- ) and Mohja Kahf. (1967- ). General literary research has been conducted on these two writers and how they represent Islam in their writing; however, firstly, most of the conducted literature is about the veil and what it adds to Muslim women living in the West. Secondly, most of the previous research tackles each writer alone. Nevertheless, the current study is predominantly different as it shows how Islam is represented in both Aboulela’s Minaret (2004) and Kahf’s The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf (2006) as a religion that provides an ethical pathway and empowers its adherents socially, politically and psychologically, thus lending purpose to one’s life. It also fills the gap in discussing the works of two writers from different backgrounds and in different settings and contexts in one study.

Challenging Media Representations of the Veil

2000 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 22-53
Author(s):  
Katherine Bullock
Keyword(s):  
Muslim Women ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
The West ◽  
The Media ◽  
Multiple Meanings ◽  
The Veil ◽  
Western Media

The image of the Muslim woman’s veil in the popular western media isthat it is a symbol of oppression and violence in Islam. The forced coveringof women in postrevolutionary Iran, or lately, under the Talibanin Afghanistan seems to confirm this image of the veil. But this singularimage of the ‘veil’ is not the whole story of covering. Since the late1970s scores of Muslim women, from Arabia to Asia to the West, havebeen voluntarily covering. The re-covering movement challenges thereductive image of the veil as a symbol of Muslim women’s oppression.Due to the ubiquitous image of the veil as a symbol of oppression orviolence, Muslim women living in the West who cover often suffer discrimination,harassment, even assault. Hence, it is important to understandthe multiple meanings of the veil, and to challenge the media toimprove their representation of its meanings.

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