ABSTRACT
The introductory chapter starts with the competing representations of Muslim women in Indian popular discourses. Muslim women’s narratives on their struggle, resistance, and activism force us to delve into the reasons behind their invisibility and silence as nurtured by dominant discourses. It further explains the question: what constitutes the dominant discourse? It tries to explain the discursive tropes like tin talaq (divorce), purdah, and polygamy that shape the fixed identity of Muslim women. The subsections also search for alternative discourses that can explain the quest for Muslim women’s activism in India. This search enables us to look for a theoretical framework that values the politics of context and location. Muslim women’s engagement with Islam in a specific political field has produced new meanings and forms of activism. In this context, the subsections also introduce the city of Mumbai, more specifically, its political field that has pushed these women to come out of their homes for activism. It also discusses the way the city of dreams has produced a communalised field since the 1990s and its impact on the minority community.
