Alternative Performativity of Muslimness: The Intersection of Race, Gender, Religion, and Migration

by Amina Alrasheed Nayel

Overview

The book highlights issues related to the construction of gender in Africa and African identity politics. It explores the limitations of the constructed category of “African Muslim woman” in West Yorkshire. Amina Alrasheed Nayel uses Black feminist epistemology along with postcolonial, feminist, and critical race theory to examine the multiple identities that Sudanese women negotiate in the UK.

The diverse settings of Islam and Islamic culture, circumscribed around issues of performativity of Islam and identity construction in the diasporic space are unpacked in this volume. In addition, this work analyzes specific practices and performances, starting with the multifaceted nature of Islam and the problematic concepts of “Sunni/Sufi,” “Muslim woman,” “race,” and “blackness.” The book reveals that exile, nostalgia, and racial/ethnic differences within Islam and the wider UK community underpin the performativity of Muslimness of the Sudanese women living in West Yorkshire, and reiterates the importance of moving beyond the homogeneity of the idea of “Muslim woman” towards investigating the complexities of this group. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783319440514
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan
Publication date:	01/26/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	242
File size:	667 KB

About the Author

Amina Alrasheed Nayel received her PhD from University of Leeds, UK. She has served as Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the Gender and Peace Building Program at the University for Peace, Costa Rica. She has also worked as a consultant for many international and UN organizations and as Program Manager of the Gender and Economic Policy Management Initiative, Arab States, with the UNDP. She is currently working as a consultant for women, peace, and security in Tunisia with the United Nations Support Mission in Libya, UNDP, and other UN agencies.

Table of Contents

1. Research Area Problems and Methodology2. Sudanese Women and the Intersection of Identity and Islam in Historical and Contemporary Perspective 3. Reflections on Contested Identities: Investigating the Narratives of Northern Sudanese Muslim Women in West Yorkshire, Migration Identity, and Performances. 4. Missing the Nile: Melancholic Nostalgia and Making Home 5. The Politics of Difference, Performativity, Identities, and Belonging