'Not Another Hijab Row': New conversations on gender, race, religion and the making of communities

Main Article Content

Tanja Dreher & Christina Ho

Abstract

Headscarves in schools. Sexual violence in Indigenous communities. Muslim women at public swimming pools. Polygamy. Sharia law. Outspoken Imams on sexual assault. Integration and respect for women. It seems that around the world in the media and public debate, women’s issues are at the top of the agenda. Yet all too often, support for
women’s rights is proclaimed loudest by conservative politicians intent on policing communities and demonising Muslims during the ‘war on terror’. This edition of the Transforming Cultures eJournal offers critical reflections on the contemporary politics of gender, race and religion, and provides a platform for those perspectives which are too often sidelined in the debate, perspectives that seek to go beyond simplistic debates such as ‘hijab: to ban or not to ban?’ or ‘Muslim women: oppressed or liberated?’

Article Details

Section
Editorial

References

Abu Odeh, L (1993) 'Post-colonial feminism and the veil: Thinking the difference', Feminist Review 43: 26-37. https://doi.org/10.1057/fr.1993.2

Agamben, G (1998) Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life Stanford University Press, Stanford California.

Ahmed, L. (1992) Women and Gender in Islam, New Haven: Yale University Press.

Ayotte, Kevin J. and Husain, Mary E. (2005). Securing Afghan Women: Neocolonialism, epistemic violence, and the rhetoric of the veil. NWSA Journal, 17(3), 112-133. https://doi.org/10.2979/NWS.2005.17.3.112

Bouma, G. D. and J. Brace-Govan (2000) 'Gender and Religious Settlement: Families, hijabs and identity', Journal of Intercultural Studies 21(2): 159-175. https://doi.org/10.1080/713678941

Butler, C. (1999) 'Cultural Diversity and Religious Conformity: Dimensions of social change among second-generation Muslim women' in Ethnicity, Gender and Social Change, R. Barot (ed), New York, Palgrave: 135-151.

Dreher, T (2006) Whose Responsibility?: Community anti-racism strategies in NSW after September 11, 2001 UTS Shopfront Research Monograph Series No 3.

Dreher, T. (2003) 'Speaking up and talking back: News media interventions in Sydney's 'othered' communities', Media International Australia incorporating Culture & Policy, vol. November, pp. 121 -137 .

Dreher, T., Simmons, F. (2006) 'Australian Muslim Women's Media Interventions', Feminist Media Studies, vol. 6 .

Dwyer, C. (2000) 'Negotiating Diasporic Identities: Young British South Asian Muslim Women', Women's Studies International Forum 23(4): 475-486. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0277-5395(00)00110-2

Ferguson, M.L. (2005) '"W" Stands for Women: Feminism and Security Rhetoric in the Post-9/11 Bush Administration', Politics and Gender 1(1): 9-38. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1743923X05050014

Ferguson, M. L. and L.J. Marso (eds) (2007) W Stands for Women: Hoe the George W Bush Presidency Shaped a New Politics of Gender Duke University Press, Durham and London.

Ho, C. (2007) 'Muslim women's new defenders: Women's rights, nationalism and Islamophobia in contemporary Australia', Women's Studies International Forum, vol. 30, pp. 290 -298 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2007.05.002

Ho, C. & Dreher, T. (2006) 'Where has all the anti-racism gone?'. New Racisms/New AntiRacisms conference, Sydney University.

MacLeod, A. E. (1992) 'Hegemonic Relations and Gender Resistance: The new veiling as accommodating protest in Cairo', Signs 17(3): 533-557. https://doi.org/10.1086/494748

Moreton-Robinson, A. (2006) 'Towards a new research agenda? Foucault, Whiteness and Indigenous sovereignty' Journal of Sociology Vol 42 (4) pp 383 – 395. https://doi.org/10.1177/1440783306069995

Perera, S. (2006) 'Race Terror, Sydney, December 2005' Borderlands ejournal Vol 5, No 1.

Poynting, S and G Noble, P Tabar, J Collins (2004) Bin Laden in the Suburbs: Criminalising the Arab other Sydney Institute of Criminology Series, Sydney.

Samad, Y. (2004) 'Muslim Youth in Britain: Ethnic to Religious Identity', paper presented to Muslim Youth in Europe: Typologies of Religious Belonging and Sociocultural Dynamics, Edoardo Agnelli Centre for Comparative Religious Studies, Turin.

Timmerman, C. (2000) 'Muslim Women and Nationalism: The Power of the Image', Current Sociology 48(4): 15-27. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392100048004003

UMWA (United Muslim Women Association) (2005) 'Pro-Hijab Campaign, online: , updated: 26 October 2005.

Young, I. M. (2007) 'The Logic of Masculinist Protection: Reflections on the current security state' in Ferguson, M. L. and L.J. Marso (eds) W Stands for Women: Hoe the George W Bush Presidency Shaped a New Politics of Gender, Duke University Press, Durham and London, pp 115 – 140. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822390657-006