ABSTRACT

Following a long historical legacy, Muslim women’s lives continue to be represented and circulate widely as a vehicle of intercultural understanding within a context of the "war on terror." Following Edward Said’s thesis that these cultural forms reflect and participate in the power plays of empire, this volume examines the popular and widespread production and reception of Muslim women’s lives and narratives in literature, poetry, cinema, television and popular culture within the politics of a post-9/11 world. This edited collection provides a timely exploration into the pedagogical and ethical possibilities opened up by transnational, feminist, and anti-colonial readings that can work against sensationalized and stereotypical representations of Muslim women. It addresses the gap in contemporary theoretical discourse amongst educators teaching literary and cultural texts by and about Muslim Women, and brings scholars from the fields of education, literary and cultural studies, and Muslim women’s studies to examine the politics and ethics of transnational anti-colonial reading practices and pedagogy. The book features interviews with Muslim women artists and cultural producers who provide engaging reflections on the transformative role of the arts as a form of critical public pedagogy.

chapter |22 pages

Introduction

The Contested Imaginaries of Reading Muslim Women and Muslim Women Reading Back

part I|108 pages

Transnational Anticolonial Feminist Reading Practices

chapter 1|34 pages

Sur/Veil

The Veil as Blank(et) Signifier

chapter 2|23 pages

Khamosh Pani

Reading Partition Muslim Masculinities and Femininities in an Age of Terror

chapter 3|28 pages

Breaking the Stigma?

The Antiheroine in Fatih Akın's Head On

part II|41 pages

The Politics of Production and Reception

chapter 5|19 pages

“A Too-Quick Enthusiasm for the Other”

North American Women's Book Clubs and the Politics of Reading

chapter 6|20 pages

Of Activist Fandoms, Auteur Pedagogy, and Imperial Feminism

From Buffy the Vampire Slayer to I Am Du'a Khalil 1

part III|71 pages

Transformative Pedagogies

chapter 7|23 pages

Cartographies of Difference and Pedagogies of Peril

Muslim Girls and Women in Western Young Adult Fiction Novels

chapter 8|20 pages

“Shaking Up” Vision

The Video Diary as Personal and Pedagogical Intervention in Mona Hatoum's Measures of Distance

chapter 9|26 pages

From Empathy to Estrangement, from Enlightenment to Implication

A Pedagogical Framework for (Re)Reading Literary Desire against the “Slow Acculturation of Imperialism”

part IV|50 pages

Reflections on Cultural Production

chapter 10|5 pages

Interview with Mohja Kahf 1

chapter 11|4 pages

Interview with Zarqa Nawaz

chapter 12|13 pages

Interview with Rasha Salti

chapter 13|5 pages

Interview with Tayyibah Taylor

chapter 14|8 pages

Interview with Sofia Baig

chapter 15|9 pages

Interview with Sahar Ullah

chapter 16|4 pages

Interview with Jamelie Hassan