Deveiling body stories: Muslim girls negotiate visual, spatial, and ethical hijabs

Abstract

This article describes a collaborative research project that took place in two south‐western US border towns and sought to understand how four muslim 1 girls (age 14–17) expressed and negotiated their bodily learning experiences. Drawing on both the work of arab–muslim critical feminist Fatima Mernissi who utilized classical Islamic tools of research and my positionalities as arabyyah‐muslimah, I used insider’s methods to discuss how three hijabs (veils) – the visual, spatial, and ethical – acted as a central genderizing discourse that challenged the girls’ learning opportunities. This article shows how the girls’ parents enforced these three hijabs; how the girls questioned and deveiled the hijabs in their dress, mobility in public places, and physical behavior around boys. This inquiry is a call for critical feminist researchers and educators to recognize how these three hijabs form a key genderizing discourse in the lives of muslim girls. It also presents the importance of: (1) working with muslim girls as agents in their own lives; (2) critical engagement with difference between researchers/educators and muslim communities; and (3) practicing a critically reflexive pedagogy of deveiling.