Building Muslim Women's Resistance Through Tourism Employment

Abstract

This article explores the meanings and experiences of tourism employment for Muslim women and the role that tourism employment plays in challenging or reinforcing traditional views of Muslim women. Semistructured interviews were conducted with nine local Muslim women working in the Oman tourism industry. The theoretical paradigm that guided this study was social constructionism, and a constructivist grounded theory methodology was used to interpret and analyze the collected data into themes. The findings indicate that tourism employment could be seen as a site for women's resistance, particularly for Muslim women seeking to change societal attitudes towards women. Thus, the idea of tourism employment as a site for women's resistance can be seen as a new way of understanding the potential role of tourism employment for women in Muslim societies.