ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on two young adult novels in order to explore the dominant paradigms framing the production, circulation, and reception of these narratives with a view to exploring the anticolonial/anti-Orientalist pedagogical possibilities that emerge from more subversive and resistant readings. Decolonizing the textual spaces where racial and cultural alterity are represented is a project with particular urgency, as these texts are increasingly being used to garner support for military violence abroad and for draconian policies in the West. The ubiquity of novels and other forms of cultural production about Muslim women exists within a geopolitical context and shapes public opinion in ways that serve hegemonic interests. The Shabanu series is a popular resource for multicultural education among young adult readers despite being fraught with the anticolonial and antiracist feminist concerns outlined in the chapter.
