scholarly journals ‘They Make Us Feel Like We’re a Virus’: The Multiple Impacts of Islamophobic Hostility Towards Veiled Muslim Women

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 44-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irene Zempi ◽  
Neil Chakraborti
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
Muslim Community ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Multiple Impacts ◽  
Muslim Identity ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Muslim Communities ◽  
The Individual

Within the prevailing post-9/11 climate, veiled Muslim women are commonly portrayed as oppressed, ‘culturally dangerous’ and ‘threatening’ to the western way of life and to notions of public safety and security by virtue of being fully covered in the public sphere. It is in such a context that manifestations of Islamophobia often emerge as a means of responding to these ‘threats’. Drawing from qualitative data elicited through a UK-based study, this article reflects upon the lived experiences of veiled Muslim women as actual and potential victims of Islamophobia and examines the impacts of Islamophobic attacks upon victims, their families and wider Muslim communities. Among the central themes we explore are impacts upon their sense of vulnerability, the visibility of their Muslim identity, and the management of their safety in public. The individual and collective harms associated with this form of victimisation are considered through notions of a worldwide, transnational Muslim community, the ummah, which connects Muslims from all over world. We conclude by noting that the effects of this victimisation are not exclusively restricted to the global ummah; rather, the harm extends to society as a whole by exacerbating the polarisation which already exists between ‘us’ and ‘them’.

scholarly journals A contemplation on ‘Sultana’s Dream’

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 33
Author(s):  
Priyanka Chakrabarty
Keyword(s):  
Muslim Women ◽  
Individual Growth ◽  
Women In Politics ◽  
Muslim Community ◽  
Indian Politics ◽  
The Public ◽  
Patriarchal Culture ◽  
Scientific World ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Muslim Communities

Sultana’s Dream is a piece written by most prolific Muslim woman intellectual Rokeya Shekhawat, published The Ladies Magazine She spoke against the patriarchy in Muslim community. Her “ The Sultana’s Dream” depicts a dream sequence but it is not simply a sequence for entertainment. It rather speaks for a transformation in society to bring women out the boundaries of four walls of home and to work in the public sphere without interference of men, at all. Through a dream she challenges the dogmas, associated with Muslim women. Her own life is an example of many such practices, like confinement in a jenana system,This piece attempts to review the how beautifully the text is written and how it is radically forceful that encourages the readers to think of the degraded conditions of women and how women particularly, never question the same. She brings about certain unbelievable sequence during those days when Rokeya Shekhawat was wrting. At that time, women’s education itself was taboo. But some consensus were developed by the reformers in both Hindu and Muslim communities. But for them education for women was essential so that she become a good companion for her husband and a good mother. An idea that women needs education for her individual growth was very rare. In spite of living and growing in such society, it is contemplative as how she could manage to be so radical in her thoughts to challenge the patriarchal culture itself. She had managed to bring women in politics and scientific world which was traditionally male dominated. She had pronounced certain scientific marvels which is relevant even today. Her idea womens’ participation in politics is simply ahead of her time but relevant in contemporary Indian politics. Here, an attempt has been made to review her pioneering work.

scholarly journals KONTENPLASI MASYARAKAT MUSLIM MELAYU PALEMBANG DALAM TANTANGAN EKONOMI GLOBAL

2019 ◽  
pp. 143-156
Author(s):  
Raden Ayu Erika Septiana ◽  
Raden Ayu Ritawati
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Work Ethic ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Muslim Community ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Muslim Identity ◽  
Muslim Communities ◽  
Fast Flow ◽  
And Behavior

Along with the fast flow of change and the strong acculturation process of Palembang Malay Muslim community, Malay culture is like a ship that sails in the middle of a storm. This is based on the fact that our development places too much emphasis on material aspects that have given birth to an imbalance in the behavior patterns of the Palembang Malay Muslim community, which has increasingly been eroded by economic globalization. Excessive material competition has produced anomicous societies. The embodiment of the way the Palembang Malays behave is also reflected in their work ethic which can be roughly seen from the social structure and norms of the community. The purpose of this study is to determine the extent to which the global economy has the potential to obscure the Malay identity and the pure Muslim identity. The qualitative approach was chosen using the method of field research carried out in an effort to understand the symptoms in such a way as a phenomenon that is not external expressed through their views. The results of this study found the fact that enthusiasm and work ethic were actually not reflected in most Palembang Malay Muslim communities. Malay and Islamic relations actually obscure the role and competitiveness of the community in the practice of social relations and in earning a living. Religion is still considered as an element of local culture which is concentrated in the form of traditional customary behavior, not as a foothold, direction and way of life. Indeed religion serves to encourage humans to get involved in economic roles and behavior, because religion can reduce anxiety and fear not too found in this study. Where the aftereffect of this condition arises a generation that is deprived of values, a generation that is fragile from the spiritual aspect, easily influenced, not easily cared for and loses its cultural footing.

Compressed Identity

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 13-35
Author(s):  
H. Şule Albayrak
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Civil Service ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
The Self ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
The Public ◽  
Economic Issues ◽  
Turkish State ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Depth Interviews

For decades the authoritarian secularist policies of the Turkish state, by imposing a headscarf ban at universities and in the civil service, excluded practising Muslim women from the public sphere until the reforms following 2010. However, Muslim women had continued to seek ways to increase their knowledge and improve their intellectual levels, not only as individuals, but also by establishing civil associations. As a result, a group of intellectual women has emerged who are not only educated in political, social, and economic issues, but who are also determined to attain their socio-economic and political rights. Those new actors in the Turkish public sphere are, however, concerned with being labeled as either “feminist,” “fundamentalist” or “Islamist.” This article therefore analyzes the distance between the self-identifications of intellectual Muslim women and certain classifications imposed on them. Semi-structured in-depth interviews with thirteen Turkish intellectual Muslim women were carried out which reveal that they reject and critique overly facile labels due to their negative connotations while offering more complex insights into their perspectives on Muslim women, authority, and identity.

scholarly journals The Normativity of Habermas’s Public Sphere from the Vantage Point of Its Evolution

2019 ◽  
pp. 47-65
Author(s):  
Maciej Hułas
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Private Property ◽  
The Public ◽  
Age Of Reason ◽  
Unique Character ◽  
Classical Setting ◽  
Bourgeois Culture ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Individual

The paper argues that the original normativity that provides the basis for Habermas’s model of the public sphere remains untouched at its core, despite having undergone some corrective alterations since the time of its first unveiling in the 1960s. This normative core is derived from two individual claims, historically articulated in the eighteenth-century’s “golden age” of reason and liberty as both sacred and self-evident: (1) the individual right to an unrestrained disposal of one’s private property; and (2) the individual right to formulate one’s opinion in the course of public debate. Habermas perceives the public sphere anchored to these two fundamental freedoms/rights as an arena of interactive opinion exchange with the capacity to solidly and reliably generate sound reason and public rationality. Despite its historical and cultural attachments to the bourgeois culture as its classical setting, Habermas’s model of the public sphere, due to its universal normativity, maintains its unique character, even if it has been thoroughly reformulated by social theories that run contrary to his original vision of the lifeworld, organized and ruled by autonomous rational individuals.     

scholarly journals The Development of Waqf Management Throught Waqf Act in Indonesia (Note on Republic of Indonesia Act Number 41 of 2004 regarding Waqf)

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aden Rosadi ◽  
Deden Effendi ◽  
Busro Busro
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
Social Meaning ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Muslim Community ◽  
Community Needs ◽  
Library Research ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Individual

Abstract: The Development of Waqf Management Throught Waqf Act in Indonesia (Note on Republic of Indonesia Act Number 41 of 2004 regarding Waqf). Waqf is an Islamic endowment of property to be held in trust and used for a charitable or religious purpose. The development of waqf law in Indonesia, as one of religious institutions, is the realization of Muslim community needs to fulfill their religious life. The object of waqf that formerly was focused on immovable objects, with the presence of the Act has been broader to movable property, especially money waqf. This paper describes the urgency of civilization and the dynamics of waqf both from the side of law and its management in the context of people prosperity. By using library research that use qualitative data, this paper found the existence of waqf, normatively lies not only in the individual obligations, but also in social meaning in the context of collective obligations involving mawqûf bih (the property), wâqif (the person creating a waqf), nazir (the supervisor/manager of waqf), mauqûf ‘alayh (waqf users), and the government through legislation. Basically, the Republic of Indonesia Act Number 41 of 2004 regarding Waqf is based on the philosophical, sociohistorical, and juridical foundation.

Politicizing Solidarity in Times of Crisis: The Politics of Alternative Action Organizations in Greece, Italy, and Spain

2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (6) ◽  
pp. 796-815 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorenzo Zamponi ◽  
Lorenzo Bosi
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Social Solidarity ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Public ◽  
Alternative Action ◽  
Visible Effect ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Individual

Alternative action organizations (AAOs) are collective bodies engaged in carrying out alternatives to dominant socioeconomic and cultural practices through actions that aim to provide people with alternative ways of enduring day-to-day difficulties and challenges in hard economic times. They are often interpreted as merely “philanthropic” actors, although it is not rare to see them go beyond the provision of direct services to people in need and end up pursuing political goals through political means. This article focuses on the process of politicization, that is, the transition of issues from the private to the public sphere and thus the use of public forms of contention (e.g., protest) proposing public solutions at the collective level instead of private solutions at the individual level. We argue for the role of the crisis in the politicization of AAOs. In particular, we show that the appropriation of the context as a context of economic crisis in the discourse of AAOs has a visible effect on their politicization, in terms of both repertoire of actions and goals. Furthermore, we show that social solidarity organizations, those that are not inherently politicized, are the main protagonists of this crisis-triggered transition. The article draws on statistical analysis of the data collected through the coding of AAOs’ websites in Greece, Italy, and Spain.

Democratic Justice

Free Justice ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 86-116
Author(s):  
Sara Mayeux
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Public Defender ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Defense Attorneys ◽  
The Public ◽  
Criminal Defense ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Constitutional Right ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Cold War

In contrast to earlier periods when elite lawyers expressed skepticism of the public defender, this chapter describes the Cold War moment when elite lawyers, like the New York lawyer Harrison Tweed, celebrated the public defender as central to the “American way of life.” By the 1950s, lawyers and political leaders touted the rights that U.S. Constitution afforded to criminal defendants as hallmarks of democracy. These rights were thought to exemplify democratic regard for the individual, in contrast to the state-dominated show trials that symbolized totalitarianism. Within this context, criminal defense attorneys were rhetorically celebrated and the public defender was reframed from a harbinger of socialism into an anticommunist figure. In 1963, the Supreme Court issued its landmark decision in Gideon v. Wainwright, further enshrining the constitutional right to counsel. Gideon held that the Sixth Amendment requires states to provide counsel to indigent defendants in all serious felony trials. The decision was celebrated and chronicled in the widely read book by journalist Anthony Lewis, Gideon’s Trumpet, and the Ford Foundation announced ambitious plans for a nationwide initiative to expand public defender offices.

Additional Opinions and Judicial Diversity at the International Court of Justice

2020 ◽  
pp. 246-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hemi Mistry
Keyword(s):  
Gender Diversity ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
International Court Of Justice ◽  
The Public ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
International Court ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact

Additional opinions—that is, dissenting opinions, separate opinions, and declarations—are, by definition, the primary institutional mechanism through which judges can express their individual views on a particular decision, as distinct from the judgment or decision proclaimed on behalf of the institution. Therefore, within the public sphere they are the principal institutional manifestation of the individual—and thus the individuality—of the judge. Consequently, for those who seek to understand the impact of certain personal characteristics upon how a judge discharges their professional functions and, in turn, the wider institutional and systemic implications of the participation of individuals bearing those characteristics, the study of additional opinions would seem a useful analytical enterprise. Using gender diversity at the International Court of Justice as a case study, the purpose of this chapter is twofold: first, to explain the relationship between diversity and additional opinions, and second, to explore the methodological potential, and challenges, that the study of additional opinions entails.

scholarly journals Being a ‘White Muslima’ in the Netherlands Ethnicity, Friendships and Relationships—The Dutch Conversion Narrative

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 345
Author(s):  
Bat Sheva Hass
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
Dutch Society ◽  
Muslim Identity ◽  
Conversion Narrative ◽  
Conversion Narratives ◽  
Conversion Experience ◽  
Muslim Communities

This article, which is part of a larger ongoing project, examines relationships, friendships and levels of belonging in Dutch society, as well as in the Dutch Muslim community in narratives of women converted to Islam. The ethnicity of these women is always visible as ‘native Dutch’ and shapes their conversion narratives. This ethnography raises a number of questions that form the basis for the analysis presented here: How do Dutch Muslim women shape their identity in a way that is both Dutch and Muslim? Do they incorporate Dutch parameters into their Muslim identity, while at the same time weaving Islamic principles into their Dutch sense of self? The findings show how the conversion narrative can be mobilized by Dutch Muslim women to serve identity formation, levels of belonging and personal (religious) choice in the Netherlands, where Islam is largely considered by the non-Muslim population to be a religion that is oppressive and discriminatory towards women and is associated with foreignness and being the Other. It is argued that, in the context of being Dutch and Muslim, these women express their freedom of choice, which is manifested through friendships, relationships and marriages (Islamic vs. civil), while their ethnicity and conversion experience is a visible component in their identity. In so doing, these women push the limits of the archetypal Dutch identity and are able to criticize Dutch society while simultaneously stretching the meaning of Islam and being critical of Dutch Muslim communities to craft their own hybrid identity.

Social Policy, Cultural Integration and Faith: A Muslim Reflection

2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 625-635 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dilwar Hussain
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
British Society ◽  
Cultural Integration ◽  
Muslim Identity ◽  
Big Society ◽  
Economic Reality ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Muslim Communities ◽  
The Uk

This article is a reflection on some of the discussions around faith and public life, within the context of Muslim communities and their interaction with public policy. It looks at the gap between popular debates on Muslims and the actual lived socio-economic reality of most people of Muslim background, and then goes on to look at aspects of identity formation and Muslim identity politics in the UK. It also considers the idea of integration and looks briefly at emerging Islamic discourses that are grappling with some of the challenges presented by modern British society. Finally, the article explores the role of faith in the public sphere and if it can help to build social capital and play a role in ideas such as the Big Society. The article concludes by emphasising the need to move beyond identity politics and communitarianism and asks where the real divides in society are – between religious and ideological groups or within them?

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