DOCSLIB.ORG

Fashion, Performance and the Politics of Belonging Among Muslim

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Fashion, Performance and the Politics of Belonging Among Muslim Fashion, Performance and the Politics of Belonging among Muslim Women in Cape Town By: Hibah Hendricks A mini thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in Anthropology, University of the Western Cape. Supervised by: Professor Heike Becker November 2013 Contents: Keywords ................................................................ ....................................................................i Abstract................................................................ ......................................................................ii Declaration............................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements...................................................................................................................iv Chapter One: Introduction .........................................................................................................1 1.1 Context of the Research ...................................................................................................8 1.2 People and Spaces ............................................................................................................9 1.3 Outline of the Thesis ......................................................................................................10 Chapter Two: Hijab fashion, self styling and performance – a global perspective……………... ........................................................................................................13 2.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................13 2.2 Belonging .......................................................................................................................14 2.3 Performance ...................................................................................................................16 2.4 From uniformed dress to individual expression.............................................................19 2.5 The hijab fashion market: the example of Turkey .........................................................26 2.6 Conclusion......................................................................................................................31 Chapter Three: Doing research on hijab fashion: the local scene ...........................................32 3.1Introduction .....................................................................................................................32 3.2 The making and unmaking of ‘Cape Malay’ ethnicity ..................................................33 3.3 Pictures of dress .............................................................................................................41 3.4 Ethnography ...................................................................................................................44 3.4.1Athlone: Its sub areas and surroundings...................................................................51 3.5 Ethical Concerns and Reflections ..................................................................................55 3.6 Conclusion......................................................................................................................58 Chapter Four: Trading hijab in Cape Town: Islam and feminity in malls and fairs................59 4.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................59 4.2 Vignettes – Vangate Mall and Gatesville.......................................................................60 4.3 Islam at the mall .............................................................................................................65 4.4 The evolution of Islamic wear shops..............................................................................70 4.5 Hijab expos ....................................................................................................................77 4.6 Hijab Fashion Shows .....................................................................................................80 4.7 Conclusion......................................................................................................................90 Chapter Five: ‘Hijabistas’: middle class Islamic feminitity, social media and fashion shows ..................................................................................................................................................92 5.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................92 5.2 Gadija Khan – Fabulous in Hijab...................................................................................92 5.3 Gadija Khan Online................................................................ ........................................97 5.4 Conclusion................................................................ ....................................................103 Chapter Six: Sartorial biographies: self styling, performance and belonging .......................105 6.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................105 6.2 The sartorial biographies of three women ....................................................................106 6.2.1Ilhaam .....................................................................................................................106 6.2.2 Hajirah ...................................................................................................................111 6.2.3 Washiela………………………………..……….………………………………..114 6.3 The local sartorial context............................................................................................120 6.4 Performing ‘Muslimness’.............................................................................................121 6.5 The affect of globalization- the case of Mufti Menk .....……………………………..122 6.6 Creating belonging through dress……………………………………………..…......124 6.7 Conclusion....................................................................................................................128 Chapter Seven: Conclusion....................................................................................................129 Reference ...............................................................................................................................132 Keywords: Muslim women Cape Malay Islamic wear Hijab fashion Self stylisation Performance Belonging International Umma Cape Town South Africa i Abstract This thesis explores how the hijab fashion market has emerged in Cape Town and how Capetonian Muslim women are appropriating hijab fashion as a means of redefining themselves as Muslim South Africans instead of ‘Cape Malays’, the ethnic label given to Muslims in the Western Cape during the apartheid era. I argue that through self stylisation Cape Malay women are performatively rejecting the ethnicisation of Islam during apartheid. I show that ‘Cape Malay’ women are using hijab fashion to perform their ‘Muslimness’ in order to claim a positive and legitimate spot in the ‘rainbow nation’ as Muslims as a religious-cultural category, and not as ‘Malays’, an ethnic category, while simultaneously claiming their belonging to the global umma (Muslim community). The public sphere in contemporary Cape Town is becoming partially and increasingly Islamicised partly due to local aspirations, and partly due to the global Islamic resurgence of the early 21st century. It is in this context that the hijab fashion market has emerged as an increasing amount of women want to be perceived as both fashionable and Muslim. This thesis is based on ethnographic fieldwork which took place mostly between March and September 2011. During this period I worked intensively with producers of hijab fashion and ‘Cape Malay’ women who make use of this style of dress. I have engaged daily in informal discussions with many ‘Cape Malay’ women. With a small number of key participants, I engaged on an ongoing basis over this period and conducted formal interviews with them and observed their style of dress. ii Declaration I hereby declare that Fashion, Performance and the Politics of Belonging among Muslim Women in Cape Town is my own work, that it has not been submitted before for any degree or examination at any other university, and that all sources that I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged as complete references. Hibah Hendricks November 2013 _________________ Prof. Heike Becker November 2013 iii Acknowledgements I would like to thank my participants for their valuable contribution to this study. I am equally grateful to the South Africa Netherlands Research Programme on Alternatives in Development (SANPAD) for the financial assistance they have provided me with and to the SANPAD project members at UWC for their academic support. Particular mention is given to my supervisor Heike Becker who has encouraged and supported me throughout, I am truly grateful for this. Last, but certainly not least, I would like to thank my family for always supporting me in all that I do. iv Chapter One: Introduction Growing up as a Muslim girl in Cape Town I, like many of my friends and family 1 members, was taught to ‘cover my owra’ which locally referred to everything besides my hands and face once I became mukalaf or reached puberty.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Muslim Women's Pilgrimage to Mecca and Beyond
    Muslim Women’s Pilgrimage to Mecca and Beyond This book investigates female Muslims pilgrimage practices and how these relate to women’s mobility, social relations, identities, and the power struc- tures that shape women’s lives. Bringing together scholars from different disciplines and regional expertise, it offers in-depth investigation of the gendered dimensions of Muslim pilgrimage and the life-worlds of female pilgrims. With a variety of case studies, the contributors explore the expe- riences of female pilgrims to Mecca and other pilgrimage sites, and how these are embedded in historical and current contexts of globalisation and transnational mobility. This volume will be relevant to a broad audience of researchers across pilgrimage, gender, religious, and Islamic studies. Marjo Buitelaar is an anthropologist and Professor of Contemporary Islam at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. She is programme-leader of the research project ‘Modern Articulations of Pilgrimage to Mecca’, funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). Manja Stephan-Emmrich is Professor of Transregional Central Asian Stud- ies, with a special focus on Islam and migration, at the Institute for Asian and African Studies at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany, and a socio-cultural anthropologist. She is a Principal Investigator at the Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies (BGSMCS) and co-leader of the research project ‘Women’s Pathways to Professionalization in Mus- lim Asia. Reconfiguring religious knowledge, gender, and connectivity’, which is part of the Shaping Asia network initiative (2020–2023, funded by the German Research Foundation, DFG). Viola Thimm is Professorial Candidate (Habilitandin) at the Institute of Anthropology, University of Heidelberg, Germany.
    [Show full text]
  • Zahalování V Současných Muslimských Zemích Hana Měřínská
    Západočeská univerzita v Plzni Fakulta filozofická Bakalářská práce Zahalování v současných muslimských zemích Hana Měřínská Plzeň 2016 Západočeská univerzita v Plzni Fakulta filozofická Katedra blízkovýchodních studií Studijní program Mezinárodní teritoriální studia Studijní obor Blízkovýchodní studia Bakalářská práce Zahalování v současných muslimských zemích Hana Měřínská Vedoucí práce: Mgr. Sobotková Veronika, Ph. D. Katedra blízkovýchodních studií Fakulta filozofická Západočeské univerzity v Plzni Plzeň 2016 Prohlašuji, že jsem práci zpracovala samostatně a použila jen uvedených pramenů a literatury. Plzeň, duben 2016 ……………………… Obsah 1 ÚVOD .......................................................................................................................................... 1 2 HISTORIE ZAHALOVÁNÍ .............................................................................................................. 3 3 TÉMATIKA ZAHALOVÁNÍ V KORÁNU A SUNNĚ .......................................................................... 6 4 VÝZNAM ZAHALOVÁNÍ PRO MUSLIMSKOU ŽENU ..................................................................... 8 5 MÍRA MUSLIMSKÉHO ŽENSKÉHO ZAHALENÍ ............................................................................ 12 6 ZAHALOVÁNÍ V SOUČASNÝCH MUSLIMSKÝCH ZEMÍCH ........................................................... 22 6. 1 Saúdská Arábie ................................................................................................................. 22 6. 2 Afghánistán .....................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Ella Phd October 24, 2017
    This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ WORDS, WIGS AND VEILS MODEST RELIGIOUS DRESS AND GENDERED ONLINE IDENTITIES Fitzsimmons, Eleonora Awarding institution: King's College London The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 30. Sep. 2021 WORDS, WIGS AND VEILS: MODEST RELIGIOUS DRESS AND GENDERED ONLINE IDENTITIES Eleonora Fitzsimmons Theology and Religious Studies King's College London, University of London Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Religious Studies, September 2016 !1 Abstract Words, Wigs and Veils: Modest Religious Dress and Gendered Online Identities In this thesis, I explore how Muslim and Jewish women in a predominantly North American cultural context use online public spaces to blog about their religious dress practices.
    [Show full text]
  • The Veiling Issue in 20Th Century Iran in Fashion and Society, Religion, and Government
    Article The Veiling Issue in 20th Century Iran in Fashion and Society, Religion, and Government Faegheh Shirazi Department of Middle Eastern Studies, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA; [email protected] Received: 7 May 2019; Accepted: 30 July 2019; Published: 1 August 2019 Abstract: This essay focuses on the Iranian woman’s veil from various perspectives including cultural, social, religious, aesthetic, as well as political to better understand this object of clothing with multiple interpretive meanings. The veil and veiling are uniquely imbued with layers of meanings serving multiple agendas. Sometimes the function of veiling is contradictory in that it can serve equally opposing political agendas. Keywords: Iran; women’s right; veiling; veiling fashion; Iranian politics Iran has a long history of imposing rules about what women can and cannot wear, in addition to so many other forms of discriminatory laws against women that violate human rights. One of the most recent protests (at Tehran University) against the compulsory hijab1 was also meant to unite Iranians of diverse backgrounds to show their dissatisfaction with the government. For the most part, the demonstration was only a hopeful attempt for change. In one tweet from Iran [at Tehran University] we read in Persian: When Basijis [who receive their orders from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Supreme Leader of Iran] did not give permission to the students to present a talk against compulsory hijab, the students started to sing together the iconic poem of yar e ,my school friend2. “Basij members became helpless and nervous/ﻳﺎﺭ ﺩﺑﺴﺘﺎﻧﯽ ﻣﻦ dabestani man but the students sang louder and louder.
    [Show full text]
  • Saudi Leadership
    Saudi leadership has recognized that empowering women in STEM has proven to be highly beneficial for any nation, and designed programs and initiatives to drive opportunities in these fields.” About the MWL The Muslim World League is a non-governmental international organization based in Makkah. Its goal is to clarify the true message of Islam. Crown Prince Faisal, the third son of King Abdulaziz Al Saud, founded the Muslim World League during the meeting of the general Islamic Conference on May 18, 1962, in order to fulfill his dream for an Islamic Ummah. The establishment of the MWL continued the vision of the Crown Prince to enlighten and educate the international Muslim community, which began with the founding of the Islamic University of Madi- nah in 1961. The Muslim World League has grown into a worldwide charity to which the Saudi Royal Family remain active donors. Ascending to the throne as King Faisal in November 1964, the Saudi leader remained steadfast in his faith, proclaiming: “I beg of you, brothers, to look upon me as both brother and servant. ‘Majesty’ is reserved to God alone and ‘the throne’ is the throne of the Heavens and Earth.” Contents Volume 49 | Issue 6 1. Activities in Review Key Events for the Muslim World League ................................................4 2. Letter from the Editor ................................................................6 3. Editorial Leaders The Rise of Saudi Women in Tech .......................................................7 Reciting the Quran Empowers Women, Opens Minds and Changes Perspectives ........ 12 4. Feature Essays For Women Wearing Hijabs, Power Persists ............................................ 15 Muslim Women in Public Diplomacy .................................................. 18 5. Cultural Essay Women Continue to Shine in Positions of Leadership at the MWL .....................
    [Show full text]
  • Investigating the Importance of Wearing Hijab by Muslim Women
    Investigating the Importance of wearing Hijab by Muslim Women Kamal-deen Olawale* & SULAIMAN (Ph.D)** *Associate Professor, Department of Religious Studies, & Fatai Gbenga Raifu, Ekiti-State University, PMB 5363, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria, **Assistant Lecturer, Department of Religious Studies, Ekiti State University, P.M.B 5363, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria ABSTRACT In the West, many regard the hijab as a sign of oppression, with women forced to wear the garments by men. To throw light on this important issue, the current study focuses on the importance of wearing Hijab by Muslim Women according to Qur’an and Sunna. It will also, looks at the concept, the place and the reasons why Allah ordered Muslim women to wear Hijab. The study is theoretical in nature, the existing available literatures and research work related to the topic will be reviewed. The study reveals that, in the seventh century, Arabia was existed as a patriarchy that objectified women and deemed them to be worthy of some respect based on their lineage and fortune. Only upper-class women wore hijab then. The hijab, therefore, worn by them at that point was one step further taken by Islam to erase the social hierarchy implemented on women. It also revealed that, there are many importance of Hijab. Such as: to obey God, and to be known as respectable women. It also, Hijab frees women from being thought of as sexual objects of desire or from being valued for their looks, or body shape rather than their minds and intellect. The paper also notes that in many dry and hot countries, Hijab helps women keep their hair cleaner for a longer time by protecting it from wind and dirt.
    [Show full text]
  • Challenges Faced by Religions
    F all . 2013 2018 - 2 $4.00 The longest running Islamic magazine since 1921 “In the Latter Days, the sun shall rise from the West” Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) to a Social Problem Does Religion incite Violence? 21 Mistreatment of Women: Islamic Solutions 32 Naturalism vs Spiritualism 16 Challenges Facedto Islamby in theReligions West Alcoholism and Gambling: A Challenge 30 spiritual practices and belief in God Atheism and Agnosticism: A look into 14 The Origin of the Conict between 27 Challenges Faced by Religions The Origin of the Conict between 27 Atheism and Agnosticism: A look into 14 spiritual practices and belief in God Alcoholism and Gambling: A Challenge 30 “In the Latter Days, the sun shall rise from the West” Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) Islamic magazine since 1921 The longest running to Islam in the West $4.00 2018 - 2 Naturalism vs Spiritualism 16 F all . 2013 F all . 2013 2013 . all F 2018 - 2 2 - 2018 $4.00 $4.00 F all . 2013 2018The longest - 2 running running longest The Islamic magazine since 1921$4.00 1921 since magazine Islamic The longest running Islamic magazine since 1921 “In the Latter Days, the sun shall rise from the West” Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) him) upon be Allah of blessings and (Peace Muhammad Prophet Holy West” the from rise shall sun the Days, Latter the “In “In the Latter Days, the sun shall rise from the West” Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) Mistreatment of Women:
    [Show full text]
  • Muslim Women in US After 9/11: from the ``Unknown
    Muslim Women in US after 9/11: from the “unknown” to the “other”. The representation and stereotypes of Muslim American Women through a distorted and framed image Mouna Ibrahim Osman To cite this version: Mouna Ibrahim Osman. Muslim Women in US after 9/11: from the “unknown” to the “other”. The representation and stereotypes of Muslim American Women through a distorted and framed image. Humanities and Social Sciences. 2016. dumas-01382834 HAL Id: dumas-01382834 https://dumas.ccsd.cnrs.fr/dumas-01382834 Submitted on 14 Dec 2016 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. 2015/2016 2015/201 6 Presented by: Mouna Ibrahim Osman Thesis directed by: Professor Francis McCollum Feeley University: Stendhal/Grenoble3 Department: English Degree: Master2/LLCE Memoir defended publicly on May 20, 2016 Before a sample of jury composed of Francis Feeley: Professor of American Civilization and Teacher-researcher at the University of Grenoble3 (Director). Mohamed Benrabah: Professor of English language, sociolinguistics, and Teacher-researcher at the University of Grenoble3. Gregory Benedetti: Professor of American Civilization and Teacher-researcher and Lecturer at the University of Grenoble3 Muslim Women in US after 9/11: From the “unknown” to the “other” The representation and stereotypes of Muslim American Women through a distorted and framed image Sallie Jones (Non-Muslim, USA) About 4 years ago, I met the kindest and warmhearted woman and her Muslim family so that was my introduction into what World Hijab Day (WHD) is.
    [Show full text]
  • Reconciling Hyphenated Identities: Muslim American Youth Reflect on College Life in the Midst of Islamophobia
    The University of San Francisco USF Scholarship: a digital repository @ Gleeson Library | Geschke Center Doctoral Dissertations Theses, Dissertations, Capstones and Projects 12-2019 Reconciling Hyphenated Identities: Muslim American Youth Reflect on College Life in the Midst of Islamophobia Diba Ataie University of San Francisco, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.usfca.edu/diss Part of the Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons Recommended Citation Ataie, Diba, "Reconciling Hyphenated Identities: Muslim American Youth Reflect on College Life in the Midst of Islamophobia" (2019). Doctoral Dissertations. 517. https://repository.usfca.edu/diss/517 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, Capstones and Projects at USF Scholarship: a digital repository @ Gleeson Library | Geschke Center. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of USF Scholarship: a digital repository @ Gleeson Library | Geschke Center. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The University of San Francisco RECONCILING HYPHENATED IDENTITIES: MUSLIM AMERICAN YOUTH REFLECT ON COLLEGE LIFE IN THE MIDST OF ISLAMOPHOBIA A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the School of Education Department of International & Multicultural Education Human Rights Education Concentration In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Education by Diba Ataie San Francisco, California December 2019 1 THE UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO DISSERTATION ABSTRACT Reconciling Hyphenated Identities: Muslim American Youth Reflect on College Life in the Midst of Islamophobia Muslims make up more than 1.8 billion people of the world population and have been displaced globally in waves due to the geopolitical tension in their homeland.
    [Show full text]
  • Transnational Solidarity with Which Muslim Women?
    Politics & Gender, 17 (2021), 112–135. Transnational Solidarity with Which Muslim Women? The Case of the My Stealthy Freedom and World Hijab Day Campaigns1 Ladan Rahbari Ghent University Susan Dierickx Vrije Universiteit Brussel Gily Coene Vrije Universiteit Brussel Chia Longman Ghent University The hijab has been the subject of public and academic debates that have polarized scholars, politicians, and activists. Opinions on veiling range widely: while some view veiling as an oppressive practice, others regard veiling as an expression of women’s agency and empowerment. Solidarity practices, such as movements against compulsory veiling or actions encouraging non-Muslim women to temporarily wear the hijab, are some of the ways in which activists have tried to show solidarity with Muslim women. In this 1 This research is supported by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO). Published by Cambridge University Press 1743-923X/19 $30.00 for The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association. # The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association, 2019 doi:10.1017/S1743923X19000552 112 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.38.176, on 04 Oct 2021 at 21:22:52, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1743923X19000552 TRANSNATIONAL SOLIDARITY WITH WHICH MUSLIM WOMEN? 113 qualitative study, data from the content analysis of the online platforms of two media campaigns, together with in-depth interviews with Iranian women living in Belgium, were triangulated. Women’s perceptions of two solidarity campaigns were explored: the anti–compulsory veiling movement My Stealthy Freedom and the pro-acceptance World Hijab Day campaign.
    [Show full text]
  • INTRODUCTION Radio Islam Is a South African
    CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Radio Islam is a South African community radio station. Broadcast primarily to a Muslim audience in the Gauteng province of South Africa via medium-wave radio, it also has satellite and web-streaming which expands its reach nationally and globally (Radio Islam 2016). This dissertation seeks to examine the ways in which masculinity in the South African Indian Muslim community is constructed in some texts disseminated via Radio Islam. The theological body whose teachings the majority of South African Indian Muslims follow is the Jamiatul Ulama (JU). Radio Islam is a medium through which ideologies from the JU are disseminated; as Murkens (2009: 104) found, “a major part of Radio Islam’s content comes from its role as transmitter of Islam and gatekeeper of Islamic values and culture as interpreted by the Jamiatul Ulama”. Many of the teachings of the JU stem from Islamic “schools found in the Indo-Pak subcontinent” (Ismail 2002: 9), including the Deoband school, and were brought to South Africa by Indian immigrants. Some of the JU’s positions in terms of gender have been criticised for their conservative nature, and the extents to which they promote the subjugation of women under the guise of religion. Discourses from the JU originate from readings of Islamic texts. Islam’s holiest text is the Quran. The Quran is a doctrine by which Muslims are obliged to abide, in which the practice of Islam is outlined. It refers to history, and gives specific guidelines and orders for behaviour and actions, explicitly allowing and forbidding certain actions.
    [Show full text]
  • A Narrative Study About the Transformative Visual Cultural
    A NARRATIVE STUDY ABOUT THE TRANSFORMATIVE VISUAL CULTURAL DIALOGUE BEYOND WOMEN’S VEILS Fahad Aljebreen, B.A., M.A. Dissertation Prepared for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS August 2016 APPROVED: Joni Acuff, Major Professor Laura Evans, Major Professor Terry Barrett, Committee Member Tyson Lewis, Committee Member Mickey Abel, Chair of the Department of Art Education and Art History Greg Watts, Dean of the College of Visual Arts and Design Victor Prybutok, Vice Provost of the Toulouse Graduate School Aljebreen, Fahad. A Narrative Study about the Transformative Visual Cultural Dialogue beyond Women’s Veils. Doctor of Philosophy (Art Education), August 2016, 339 pp., 8 tables, references, 190 titles. In this narrative study, I explore the transformative visual cultural dialogue behind the sight of the veil or veiled women in Denton, Texas as a Western culture. The narrative is constructed from the experiences of three Western non-Muslim women participants who wore the veil publicly in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, especially Denton, Texas, for about two weeks, in the spring of 2014. The main question for this study is: How do veiled Western women incite transformative visual cultural dialogue and ideas concerning veiled women? To gather rich data to answer the study's question, I utilized qualitative narrative inquiry to explore the transformative dialogue that the veil, as a visual culture object, can incite in non-Muslim Western women's narratives. The study involves three participants who are non-Muslim American women who voluntarily wore the veil in public and recorded their own and other's reactions.
    [Show full text]