ABSTRACT
Student-centered learning is an effective way to counter colonial assumptions about veils, sexuality, and Islam in the undergraduate classroom. Illustrating both embodied learning and perspective transformation, this chapter presents classroom activities that help students deconstruct and reevaluate common US cultural and colonial assumptions that equate veiling in Islam with the oppression of Muslim women. Student perspectives are transformed through student-centered learning activities, such as self-reflection, multimedia presentations, and small group discussions After being introduced to academic scholarship on the history of veiling and after engaging in multiple opportunities to engage in small and large group discussions on the topic, students are able to acknowledge and distinguish a multiplicity of perspectives on veiling and sexuality in Islam. This chapter provides an example of how to teach a comparative religious studies courses in a way that does not present US Protestant Christianity as the normative standard or as the beginning point for understanding diverse religious systems and practices.
[This chapter is a revision of: Defibaugh, Amy, and Krutzsch, Brett. 2017. “Teaching about Sexuality and Veiling in Islam.” Teaching Theology and Religion 20, no. 2 (April): 153–161. https://doi.org/10.1111/teth.12382.]
