Chapter 34 Affective Witnessing of the Hijab

The hijab has triggered affects for centuries. It has sparked narratives of “saving” Muslim women from the shackles of Muslim men and Islam. In recent years, we have seen several examples of individuals and collectives who experience the mere sighting of the hijab as intolerable. Here, I take a clos...

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Kaituhi matua: Abdel-Fadil, Mona
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Reo:Ingarihi
I whakaputaina: Taylor & Francis 2023
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Urunga tuihono:https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/61390
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author Abdel-Fadil, Mona
author_browse Abdel-Fadil, Mona
author_facet Abdel-Fadil, Mona
author_sort Abdel-Fadil, Mona
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description The hijab has triggered affects for centuries. It has sparked narratives of “saving” Muslim women from the shackles of Muslim men and Islam. In recent years, we have seen several examples of individuals and collectives who experience the mere sighting of the hijab as intolerable. Here, I take a closer look at the affects of “awayness” that move through the hijab in contemporary Western contexts, and how these affects are performed, heightened, and intensified online. Drawing on a decolonial approach to affect and extensive ethnographic research, I argue that collectives who are deeply immersed in the heightened and intensified affective engagement against the hijab, spell out their own symbolic death. By continuously affectively witnessing the hijab, and triggering affects such as despair, anger, outrage, sorrow, and grief, it becomes a self-inflicted trauma, perceived as unbearable. Thus, affective witnessing shifts the focus from ascribed-victimization of Muslim women to self-victimization. And, the affective witnesses of hijab emerge as the “true victims” of hijab.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-977172025-05-08T08:53:20Z Chapter 34 Affective Witnessing of the Hijab Abdel-Fadil, Mona hijab, trauma The hijab has triggered affects for centuries. It has sparked narratives of “saving” Muslim women from the shackles of Muslim men and Islam. In recent years, we have seen several examples of individuals and collectives who experience the mere sighting of the hijab as intolerable. Here, I take a closer look at the affects of “awayness” that move through the hijab in contemporary Western contexts, and how these affects are performed, heightened, and intensified online. Drawing on a decolonial approach to affect and extensive ethnographic research, I argue that collectives who are deeply immersed in the heightened and intensified affective engagement against the hijab, spell out their own symbolic death. By continuously affectively witnessing the hijab, and triggering affects such as despair, anger, outrage, sorrow, and grief, it becomes a self-inflicted trauma, perceived as unbearable. Thus, affective witnessing shifts the focus from ascribed-victimization of Muslim women to self-victimization. And, the affective witnesses of hijab emerge as the “true victims” of hijab. 2023-03-03T04:39:49Z 2023-03-03T04:39:49Z 2023-02-22T11:11:27Z 2023 chapter https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/61390 9780367492014 9781032350844 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/97717 eng open access image/jpeg image/jpeg image/jpeg image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/61390/1/9781003045007_10.4324_9781003045007-39.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/61390/1/9781003045007_10.4324_9781003045007-39.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/61390/1/9781003045007_10.4324_9781003045007-39.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/61390/1/9781003045007_10.4324_9781003045007-39.pdf Taylor & Francis Routledge 10.4324/9781003045007-39 10.4324/9781003045007-39 fa69b019-f4ee-4979-8d42-c6b6c476b5f0 The Routledge Companion to Gender and Affect H2020 European Research Council 178e65b9-dd53-4922-b85c-0aaa74fce079 9780367492014 9781032350844 European Research Council (ERC) EU collection Routledge 9 open access
spellingShingle hijab, trauma
Abdel-Fadil, Mona
Chapter 34 Affective Witnessing of the Hijab
title Chapter 34 Affective Witnessing of the Hijab
title_full Chapter 34 Affective Witnessing of the Hijab
title_fullStr Chapter 34 Affective Witnessing of the Hijab
title_full_unstemmed Chapter 34 Affective Witnessing of the Hijab
title_short Chapter 34 Affective Witnessing of the Hijab
title_sort chapter 34 affective witnessing of the hijab
topic hijab, trauma
topic_facet hijab, trauma
url https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/61390
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