Speakers on “Panel 3: Gender & Representation” will be presenting their work from 1:00–2:15pm in Allard 121.
Sabah Ghouse (MA, SFU), Gendered Islamophobia: Analyzing the Experiences of Muslim Girls and Women in Canadian Public Schools
According to various postcolonial feminist scholars, Muslim women are often presented as oppressed, backward, foreign, exotic, and/or victims of violence (Mohanty, 1988). These Orientalist tropes and representations significantly impact the lived realities of Muslim women as they become subjected to prejudice and discrimination – specifically, in the West. In order to conceptualize the distinct oppressions Muslim women experience due to their religious and gender identities, Jasmin Zine (2006) coined the term gendered Islamophobia. In her work, Zine (2006) further notes that social institutions, such as public schools, play a role in contributing to gendered Islamophobia as women within these sites may experience social exclusion and/or discrimination.
To further explore the concept of gendered Islamophobia, discerning whether schools reproduce or challenge it, this paper draws upon previous research to examine the experiences of Muslim girls and women in Canadian public schools. That is, the experiences of Muslim female students and teachers/teacher candidates were accounted for. Several themes emerged in relation to the experiences of Muslim women and girls in schools: stereotypes and discrimination; curriculum; lack of knowledge about Islam and Muslims; exclusion and lack of accommodation; responding to and resisting Islamophobia; positive and healthy relationships with non-Muslim teachers and peers; and solutions to combatting (gendered) Islamophobia in schools. The general consensus amongst scholars is that Muslim girls and women experienced varying forms of gendered Islamophobia in schools; however, scholars have also noted that some participants had positive experiences. Thus, demonstrating the complexity of Muslim experiences. Recommendations for future research are also considered.
Mozhgan Fazli (MA, SFU), Challenging Hegemonic Masculinity in Iranian Cinema Through Asghar Farhadi Movies
Masculinity is a historical fact that is created based on social interactions1 and the dominant discourses create its requirements and recreate them. The cultural regularity of Iran’s society has undergone enormous evolutions by the emergence of Islam and later modernism which have changed the Iranian society into a multi-discourse society. According to the central position of men in Iran’s power and political system, the hegemonic dominance of any discourse may have different orientations. After the Islamic Revolution (1979), the discourse of resistance against western modernity became the dominant power and the media became the means of reproducing it, but some cultural products would challenge the values of this discourse, especially the new wave of Iranian cinema.
In this research, by analyzing Asghar Farhadi’s movies, I am going to study how he tries to challenge hegemonic masculinity. I approach the question of masculinity through the work of Connell & James Messerschmidt. Although hegemonic masculinity theory denotes the dominant masculine expression within a given culture at a particular point in time and embodies the “currently most honored way of being a man” (Connell and Messerschmidt 2005 , p. 832). Not only is the hegemonic masculinity not prevalent and utmost, but it also blazons its most natural and correct pattern.With respect to masculinities, a discursive approach focuses on how they are routinely done or accomplished. Discursive approach treat masculinity, not as an essence to be revealed, but as a set of variable practices that are actively developed and negotiated in relation to other forms of identity in a particular cultural context.
Hoornaz Keshavarzian (PhD, SFU), Body as Battlefield: Iranian Women’s Self-representation on Instagram
This paper studies the sociopolitical significance of Instagram as the only authorized social media platform in Iran and examines the intersection between gender politics, hegemony, and social media. Iranian women can be regarded as a discursive figure around which hegemonic power structures are solidified and constantly reproduced. Their bodies have been regulated and securitized in a hierarchical policy-making manner both before and after the Islamic revolution. In the absence of the disciplinary gaze and the patriarchal monopoly of the public sphere, Instagram provides the opportunity for women to reclaim space for self-expression and fashion a persona that is hard to maintain otherwise. However, while present online, Iranian women inhabit cultural contexts that are different from the ones in which they reside. They need to navigate their way through a self-staging platform which perpetuates a neoliberal agenda wherein individualism is championed, collectivism is undermined, and a culture of self-actualization is the imperative. While these upbeat, visual-oriented and often presumed depthless practices can be prevalent on Instagram, I will make an intervention to nuance the political hopes that we attach to postfeminism by introducing questions and potential to visual regimes of Iranian femininity and ask how a focus on tangential political expressions through affirmation of visibility can shift some of these dynamics. Applying a critical visual discourse analysis will allow me to triangulate between users, Instagram posts and the historical, cultural and political climate of the Iranian context.