“Hijab Is My Identity”: Beyond the Politics of the Veil: The Appropriations of the Veil in an Inner-City Muslim Area of Accra (Ghana) since the 1980s
The object of this ethnographic study is to assess the contemporary debates surrounding the veil (hijab) and the cultural reinterpretation of the hair in Maamobi, an inner-city Muslim area of Accra, Ghana. Instead of reproducing the Orientalists’ view of the veil as oppressive to women in Islam, the...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
The Pennsylvania State University Press
2022
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| In: |
Journal of Africana religions
Year: 2022, Volume: 10, Issue: 1, Pages: 20-46 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Mamobi
/ Islam
/ Veil
/ Hair
/ Politics
/ Kulturelle Aneignung
/ History 1980-2022
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| RelBib Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy AG Religious life; material religion BJ Islam KBN Sub-Saharan Africa TK Recent history |
| Further subjects: | B
Islam
B Maamobi B Youth B Ghana B Veil |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The object of this ethnographic study is to assess the contemporary debates surrounding the veil (hijab) and the cultural reinterpretation of the hair in Maamobi, an inner-city Muslim area of Accra, Ghana. Instead of reproducing the Orientalists’ view of the veil as oppressive to women in Islam, the paper analyses the significance of the veil and its appropriation within the Islamic faith in recent times. I maintain that in the midst of religious plurality and the widespread perception of a fast-declining morality in urban Accra, the “traditional” role of women as gatekeepers of religious values has been refashioned in the veil debate. This study is based on my position as a resident of Maamobi for more than three decades as well as twelve months of ethnographic fieldwork I conducted in 2018 and 2019 to discuss the history and social use of the veil from the 1980s to contemporary times. |
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| ISSN: | 2165-5413 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of Africana religions
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