Images of the Muslim Woman and the Construction of Muslim Identity: The Essentialist Paradigm

This article argues that much of the postmodern discourse on the Muslim woman and her veil is symptomatic of what I call the “essentialist paradigm”. The world is seen through the prism of a group’s religious/cultural identity and eventually constructs a Muslim identity – and with it an image of the...

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Main Author: Elham Manea
Format: Online
Language:English
Published: Schüren Verlag 2021
Online Access:47089
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author Elham Manea
author_browse Elham Manea
author_facet Elham Manea
author_sort Elham Manea
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description This article argues that much of the postmodern discourse on the Muslim woman and her veil is symptomatic of what I call the “essentialist paradigm”. The world is seen through the prism of a group’s religious/cultural identity and eventually constructs a Muslim identity – and with it an image of the Muslim Woman. The image of the oppressed veiled Muslim Woman and the treatment of a piece of cloth as synonymous with her whole identity and being are products of this paradigm of thought. Using an interdisciplinary approach that combines discourse analysis and a case study of the construction of the British Muslim community, this article argues that the essentialist paradigm ignores the context of its subject matter with all its accompanying power structures, political and social factors, and the roles played by both the state and fundamentalist Islam in constructing a Muslim identity and with it the Muslim Woman and her dress code.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-633762022-02-11T15:08:40Z Images of the Muslim Woman and the Construction of Muslim Identity: The Essentialist Paradigm Elham Manea This article argues that much of the postmodern discourse on the Muslim woman and her veil is symptomatic of what I call the “essentialist paradigm”. The world is seen through the prism of a group’s religious/cultural identity and eventually constructs a Muslim identity – and with it an image of the Muslim Woman. The image of the oppressed veiled Muslim Woman and the treatment of a piece of cloth as synonymous with her whole identity and being are products of this paradigm of thought. Using an interdisciplinary approach that combines discourse analysis and a case study of the construction of the British Muslim community, this article argues that the essentialist paradigm ignores the context of its subject matter with all its accompanying power structures, political and social factors, and the roles played by both the state and fundamentalist Islam in constructing a Muslim identity and with it the Muslim Woman and her dress code. 2021-02-12T10:22:01Z 2021-02-12T10:22:01Z 2020-09-08 08:49:13 2016 chapter 47089 2414-0201 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/63376 eng Journal for Religion, Film and Media image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International https://www.schueren-verlag.de/programm/titel/521-i-sing-the-body-electric-jrfm-1-2016.html https://jrfm.eu/index.php/ojs_jrfm/article/view/54 Schüren Verlag "I Sing the body electric". Body, Voice, Technology and Religion 5b80c228-3393-4862-a8e9-6c35a63484f1 82157bb3-a608-4616-846f-47d405438eca 91-110 open access
spellingShingle Elham Manea
Images of the Muslim Woman and the Construction of Muslim Identity: The Essentialist Paradigm
title Images of the Muslim Woman and the Construction of Muslim Identity: The Essentialist Paradigm
title_full Images of the Muslim Woman and the Construction of Muslim Identity: The Essentialist Paradigm
title_fullStr Images of the Muslim Woman and the Construction of Muslim Identity: The Essentialist Paradigm
title_full_unstemmed Images of the Muslim Woman and the Construction of Muslim Identity: The Essentialist Paradigm
title_short Images of the Muslim Woman and the Construction of Muslim Identity: The Essentialist Paradigm
title_sort images of the muslim woman and the construction of muslim identity the essentialist paradigm
url 47089
work_keys_str_mv AT elhammanea imagesofthemuslimwomanandtheconstructionofmuslimidentitytheessentialistparadigm