Abstract This thesis explores the connection between the two driving forces behind the phenomena women’s empowerment and gender equality in the Arab Gulf region. These driving forces are (1)...Show moreAbstract This thesis explores the connection between the two driving forces behind the phenomena women’s empowerment and gender equality in the Arab Gulf region. These driving forces are (1) international (Western) standards (top-down approach) and (2) efforts by Arab women themselves (bottom-up approach). The social change, which has taken place in the recent years, has created new spaces and visibility for Arab Gulf women. However, it is argued with a postcolonial feminist theoretical framework that international development standards and Western liberal & Orientalist narratives often overshadow Arab Muslim women’s agency in their liberation by portraying them as oppressed and silent. As such, the existence and role of Islamic feminism is analysed to challenge these Western liberal & Orientalist narratives. This study employs various case studies as its qualitative research method, which are spread between two analytical chapters which provide a critical discourse analysis of the two approaches outlined above. Analysis of the top-down approach discusses the existing international framework of female empowerment and gender equality and relates it to the UAE as regional case study. Analysis of the bottom-up approach discusses the case of Saudi Muslim women’s rights activist Manal al-Sharif to challenge both the national patriarchal and Western neoliberal narratives, which belittle women’s agency in their own increasing empowerment. Ultimately, this thesis will focus on a how female empowerment as a regional phenomenon can be analysed within a global context.Show less
This thesis examines the identities and experiences of second-generation British Muslim women in Nida Manzoor’s We Are Lady Parts (2021). Despite the proliferation of scholarship about the...Show moreThis thesis examines the identities and experiences of second-generation British Muslim women in Nida Manzoor’s We Are Lady Parts (2021). Despite the proliferation of scholarship about the complexity of Islamic practices and experiences of Muslims in the West, (immigrant) Muslim women are still plagued with homogenizing assumptions that relegate them to the realm of the passive or the dangerous. We Are Lady Parts demonstrates these realities while also offering alternative ways of understanding Muslim women by centering universal issues of faith, friendship, love and belonging. Using postcolonial and feminist theoretical frameworks, I aim to understand how unconventional representations of punk Muslim women undermine current patriarchal and colonial discourses both in Muslim and non-Muslim communities. I pay special attention to the women’s gender performativity and the ways in which it enables performative agency in their musical performances. I then address the heterogeneity of the characters’ identities by analyzing how they navigate their desires, romantic relationships, and religion. Finally, I examine the ways in which the women are excluded from embracing a British identity and how they form alternative paths to belonging via sisterhood and a decolonial worldview.Show less
This thesis discusses the secular-Islamic feminist paradigm in the Middle East, specifically in Turkey, and the thesis focusses on the current feminist debate between secular and Islamic feminists...Show moreThis thesis discusses the secular-Islamic feminist paradigm in the Middle East, specifically in Turkey, and the thesis focusses on the current feminist debate between secular and Islamic feminists in Turkey.Show less
