Decolonizing the hijab: An interpretive exploration by two Muslim psychotherapists

Abstract

This article explores the professional, personal, and feminist interpretations and experiences of wearing of the hijab as a symbol of religious expression by two Muslim psychotherapists practicing in Johannesburg. By privileging these interpretations, the authors aim to demonstrate the need for questioning and resisting hegemonic representations of the hijab that have been appropriated by various international political and religious institutions for their own agendas, often to manipulate women’s sense of agency. With Western societies banning the hijab and Islamist societies making it compulsory, the agency of the wearer of the hijab is undermined. The inclusion of the voices of Muslim women, whether they wear the hijab or not, is necessary to redress the constraints on the agency of Muslim women that has emanated both from those in the West, and from within the Muslim community itself.

Feminisms and decolonising psychology: Possibilities and challenges

“…The coloniality of being refers to the dehumanisation and depersonalisation of colonised peoples into the “ damné or condemned of the earth” or the “wretched of the earth”, to coin phrases from Maldonado-Torres (2007, p. 253) and Fanon (1963) respectively. This is taken up in Joosub’s narrative featured in Joosub and Ebrahim (2020, this issue). Joosub states, “both the Western and Islamist forms of hijabophobia colored my experiences of wearing hijab, made me feel excluded and different, and did not allow my own interpretation of my hijab to be privileged” (p. 372).…”

“…A consequence of metacolonialism, Dhar argues, is epistemicide – or the murder of knowledge – enacted through exploitative and unbalanced cultural exchange. Dhar (2020, this issue) and Joosub and Ebrahim (2020, this issue) highlight, respectively, how “Western”-based psychiatric knowledge and “Western” discourses concerning the hijab elide localised understandings of girls’ mental health in India and gendered professional performances in South Africa.…”

“…Without getting into the complexities of what exactly is meant by intersectionality, about which there has been much debate, the scholars featured in this issue indicate how “intersectional analysis forces the recognition and examination of multiple marginalized identities and how individuals experience oppression at the intersections of these identities” (Ali-Faisal, 2020, this issue, p. 329). Indeed, Joosub and Ebrahim’s (2020, this issue) article indicates how oppression may be multifaceted and complex: the interweaving of competing narratives about the hijab as a symbol either of oppression or of modesty “perpetuate discriminatory gendering and [emphasis added] racialising discourse, and undermine Muslim women’s agency” (p. 366).…”

“…The third guiding principle revolves around prioritising topics of investigation – topics that will surface the interweaving of colonialist and gendered power relations. For example, Joosub and Ebrahim (2020, this issue) focus on the practice of wearing the hijab in professional and therapeutic spaces. They show how this practice blurs the boundaries between the private and the public self, and enables particular gendered, racialised and Islamophobic constructions of the decision to (not) wear the hijab.…”

Embracing my jihad: An intersectional approach to understanding Muslim Filipino women activists’ construction of the self as agents of change.

“…Literature has extensively explored the unique forms of violence veiled Muslim women experience at the intersection of their gender and religion, including the various meanings attached to their veiling (Joosub & Ebrahim, 2020; Litchmore & Safdar, 2016; Mirza, 2013; Simorangkir & Pamungkas, 2018; Zempi, 2016). These include how Islamophobic representations perpetuated by post-9/11 media coverage have increased incidents of violence against veiled women in Western societies, how legislative bodies continue attempts to ban veiling in public spaces, and how non-Muslim society leaders view the hijab as symbolic of women’s religious exploitation, which scholars argue is rooted in patriarchy and colonialism.…”