Rethinking Portrayals of Muslim Girls in YA Fiction

If you asked many students (especially Westerners) to describe a Muslim girl, would they point to a photo like the one here? Would they associate her with oppression, lack of education, early marriage, and vulnerability?

With the U.S. embroiled in many-years wars with Afghanistan and Iraq, news and entertainment media that sometimes seem intent on cultivating negative stereotypes of Muslims, and recurring controversies in the news, such as France's bid to ban burqas -- in part because they are considered in some circles as a symbol of gender oppression -- our understanding of Muslim people and culture can often be limited, superficial and mistaken.

In the latest issue of Rethinking Schools magazine, there is an interesting and important article called "Save the Muslim Girl," which explores messages and stereotypes in young adult fiction about Muslim girls in the Middle East (written predominantly by white women). The authors of the article say:

"Authors portray Muslim girls overwhelmingly as characters haunted by a sad past, on the cusp of a (usually arranged) marriage, or impoverished and wishing for the freedoms that are often assigned to the West, such as education, safety, and prosperity."

The article's authors focus on three issues related to the stereotypes and messages that can be perpetuated in such novels:

1. Muslim girls are veiled, nameless and silent.
2. Veiled = Oppressed
3. Muslim girls & women want to be saved by the West

They go on to say:

"What we contend is that young adult novels written by white women and marketed and consumed in the West consistently reinforce the idea that Muslim women are inherently oppressed, that they are oppressed in ways that Western women are not, and that this oppression is a function of Islam. By positioning 'Eastern' women as the women who are truly oppressed, those in the West pass up a rich opportunity to engage in complex questions about oppression, patriarchy, war, families, displacement, and the role of values (imperialist or faith-based) in these relations."

The article's authors, Özlem Sensoy and Elizabeth Marshall, don't advocate avoiding these books, but rather engaging with them using critical thinking and a deeper and broader social context. They offer an excellent list of questions to start such a conversation.


~ Marsha

Image courtesy of localsurfer via Creative Commons.

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