Women and Islam. Week#3 By Dr. Monia Mazigh Fall 2017

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1 + Women and Islam Week#3 By Dr. Monia Mazigh Fall 2017

2 + The Western mass media tend to construct an image of Muslim women using a discourse dominated by the notions of : passiveness victimization and the veil

3 + Since the first mass media institutions appeared in the late 19th century, women of other cultures have been represented as exotic, sensual and sexually passive

4 + The Collective Imagination In the colonial period, 19th century and early 20th century, the condition of colonized women was that Muslim women were submissive and weak and that Muslim men were authoritarian and aggressive

5 + Fanatics of Tangiers

6 + Veil, Niqab, Burqa Leila Ahmed, a scholar at Harvard Divinity School wrote Veiling, to western eyes, has become the symbol of both the oppression of women and the backwardness of Islam.

7 + Muslim Women in Media What are the myths? What are the realities?

8 + Powerful images and laws The persistence of negative language used to describe Muslim women, the homogenization of all Muslim women Niqab laws in Belgium, France, The Netherlands and Austria

9 + When Feminism is a useful pretext for Non Otherwise Feminists The position of women in Egypt, and Mohammedan countries generally, is, therefore a fatal obstacle to the attainment of that elevation of thought and character which should accompany the introduction of Western civilisation Lord Cromer was an active member and one-time president of the UK Men s League for Opposing the Suffrage of Women campaigning AGAINST giving British women the vote ( remember Georges W. Bush and Stephen Harper)

10 + Gayatri Spivak, Indian Scholar famously said: White men are saving brown women from brown men

11 + Books

12 + The Fantastic World the Main Stream Narrative about Muslim Women 12 The reader are plunged into dystopic worlds of violent abuse Usually the Muslim girls have suffered and escaped Those literary productions are believed by the readers to be ethnographies of actual people and places

13 + Some titles 13 Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad The Caged Virgin, Nomad, Infidel by Ayan Hirsi Ali

14 + Hidden from the readers 14 These memoirs are most of the times written by a ghostwriter ( anonymous in the case of Hirsi Ali) Or told through translators (Lost in translation)

15 + Oversimplification and 15 Generalization Most of the time the differences or nuances are erased and we fall into generalization Abu-Lughod speaks of IslamLand The bad men who abuse the heroines are Muslims, even if Moroccan, Pakistani, Jordanian or Yemeni

16 + Is there a bad and good culture? 16 These memoires can t give readers any indication that such abuses ( incest, rape, beating or other cruelties) might be exceptional or might be considered as horrifying in those communities as they would be elsewhere Leti Volpp said blaming culture for bad behaviour

17 + Wedge Issues and Polarization 17

18 + Anonymous

19 + Victims

20 + Terrorist

21 + Muslim women in the news

22 + Married to a terrorist and helping producing terrorists

23 + Raising terrorist ( from the Sydney Morning Herald)

24 + Islamic Time Bomb cartoon

25 + "Oppressed women are easily overlooked. Please support us in the fight for their rights. By German NGO (IGFM)

26 + New Muslims in the media With social media: Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, the representation is changing in both directions

27 + One side of the story Muslim women are still represented as victims of their husbands, of their societies, or simply victims of an oppressive religion

28 + But on the other side More and more Muslim women are choosing to represent themselves as

29 + These self-identified Muslim women are Stylish Creative Edgy

30 + Meet the Mipsters Muslim+ Hispters= Mipsters

31 + Diversified, happy, cool

32 + Muslim Women want to be in charge of their image representation I felt that to others, being devoted to my faith and adopting interests such as music, art, and fashion were in conflict Yasmine Chebbi, Mipster

33 + The reaction to this new representation Some Muslim women were totally against it: plumped, fluffed and frivolous Is this swag the way to show the empowerment of Muslim women? Fatimah Waseem, a Muslim blogger

34 + How about these pictures? ( Australian Muslim women playing soccer)

35 + And this one? Fashion Week in New York, September 2016

36 + Spark a discussion An important conversation: Muslims are not monolithic! Humanize the Muslim women Give them life, colour, diversity

37 + Rider (Hassan Hajjaj)

38 + Kesh Angels (Hassan Hajjaj)

39 + LV Posse (Hassan Hajjaj)

40 + Today Muslim women are more and more Vocal Agent of Power Diverse

41 + The Secret Life of Muslims

42 + She Who tells a Story War Museum December 6 to March 4: 75 photographs taken by women photographers from Iran and the Arab world. Together, these evocative images, ranging from fine art to photojournalism, challenge Western conceptions and provide insight into the contemporary social and political landscape of the Middle East

43 + And the story continues

44 + References Quran translations: The Holy Qu ran, translated by Abdullah Yusuf Ali Ali/dp/ The Study Quran: New Translation and Commentary by Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Caner Dagli, Maria Massi Dakake, Joseph E.B. Lumbard and Mohammed Rustom Commentary/dp/

STUDENT BOOK REVIEW: DO MUSLIM WOMEN NEED SAVING? Lila Abu- Lughod By Courtney Danae Paterson, Harvard Law School, J.D. 2016

STUDENT BOOK REVIEW: DO MUSLIM WOMEN NEED SAVING? Lila Abu- Lughod By Courtney Danae Paterson, Harvard Law School, J.D. 2016 In the era of post- 9/11 politics, the weighty questions of identity, religion,