Authoring a Muslim Feminist “Self” Through Travel Writing: Reclaiming Agency Through Islam
This article aims to analyze nineteenth and twentieth-century travel writing by a Muslim woman writer, Nur Begum, who embarked on a 3-month journey to perform Hajj (pilgrimage). We aim to unravel her deliberate choice of poetic form as travel writing, which we argue consciously manifests her resista...
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| Contributors: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2025
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| In: |
Feminist theology
Year: 2025, Volume: 33, Issue: 2, Pages: 178-192 |
| IxTheo Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy AF Geography of religion AG Religious life; material religion BJ Islam FD Contextual theology KBL Near East and North Africa TJ Modern history ZC Politics in general |
| Further subjects: | B
feminist self
B Agency B Travel writing B Dialogic B Muslim Women |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | This article aims to analyze nineteenth and twentieth-century travel writing by a Muslim woman writer, Nur Begum, who embarked on a 3-month journey to perform Hajj (pilgrimage). We aim to unravel her deliberate choice of poetic form as travel writing, which we argue consciously manifests her resistance against the prevailing patriarchal norms set by the Muslim culture. The study draws on Bakhtin’s dialogic framework of the human “self” as an agent engaged in constant negotiation of meanings as he emphasizes the link between human struggle for voice and their activity and growth. Within this theoretical framework, we decipher how Nur Begum authors her “feminist self” in a struggle to articulate her voice against patriarchy that denies her individuality. Moreover, we use insights from Muslim feminist scholarship (e.g. post-patriarchal reading of Islam and feminist theology) to explain how selected verses from Nur Begum’s travel writing deconstruct the myths emerging from the patriarchal interpretation of Islam and social practices in Muslim societies. |
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| ISSN: | 1745-5189 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Feminist theology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1177/09667350241298649 |
