Muslim Women, Transnational Feminism, and the Ethics of Pedagogy Contested Imaginaries in Post-9/11 Cultural Practice By Lisa K. Taylor and Jasmin Zine, eds. (New York: Routledge, 2014. 316 pages.)

Abstract

The asphyxiation of subaltern voices and the disregard of Arab and Muslim
women’s subjectivities in the cultural sphere of the post-9/11 era is the main
problematic addressed by this collection. With the editorship of Lisa K. Taylor
and Jasmin Zine, and based on the legacy of post-colonial writers like Gayatri
Spivak and Paulo Friere, this collection foregrounds how Orientalism operates
on the ground and discusses how we can come up with new discursive tools
and spaces for articulations of difference and diversity and for “reading back” to resist the Empire. Critical public pedagogy is both the main objective and the
main analytical tool in unmaking the epistemic frameworks of western imperialism,
Orientalism, and patriarchy. The articles take up different stories to expose
how racist, patriarchal, imperialist, and neo-Orientalist legacies cooperate with
western feminism in the public and cultural realms and determine the forms of
representation and modalities of agency that Muslim and Arab women can
claim. Presenting examples from South Asia to North America to the Middle
East through various cultural media (e.g., literature, the visual arts, film, and
performance art), this volume contributes to studies in critical pedagogy, transnational
feminism, and cultural and Islamic studies. It addresses an audience that
ranges from academics and students to artists and public pedagogues ...