Countering Western Stereotypical Assumptions of the Reverts Muslims’ Experiences in Na’ima b. Robert From My Sisters’ Lips (2005)

Abstract

Islamophobia has placed the Muslims in Britain in a very tight spot. Placed in a double bind situation, the Muslim women in Britain have to face two layers of oppression, the racial and gender. These women and the contemporary British Muslim women writers in particular, have to counter lopsided and inaccurate notions about their perceived gender oppression as immensely discussed in the Western feminist framework (WFF). As such, the framework of Islamic feminism emerges as reformation attempts to elevate women’s status within the variety of Islamic cultural traditions and the Western community at large. In her novel, Na’ima b. Robert has presented readers with an autobiographical collection of personal interviews with her Muslim revert sisters, Aliyah, Sara, Mei Ling, Claire, Umm Tariq, Jameela and Umm Muhammad. Entries on much-debated issues such as embracing Islam, hijab, marriage will be substantial evidence in disclosing the truth. By getting the facts right (via ijtihad of the Holy Qur’an verses and Hadith), this paper intends to counter the stereotypical assumptions of the veiled women being portrayed as the victim of oppression and backwardness by the WFF. Hence, justifiable instances (narrated interviews) where the Western preconceptions about Islam and its believers could be set right.