Intersectionality in practice: ethnic-Pakistani women of Bradford and the homogenising effects of multiculturalism Intersectional approaches can help locate Pakistani women’s position as survivors of gender-based violence in which overlapping social categories such as ethnicity, religion, generational differences, and multiculturalism render them invisible. Their’s is a situation compounded further by multiple material deprivation of inner city… Continue reading Intersectionality – the essay (part 2)
Category: Feminism
Intersectionality – the essay (part 1)
In the last three decades of the development of feminist thought, the term that started it all – “gender” – had been placed in the dock. Gender, as a single-axis social category consisting of “women / female” and “men / male” began to lose its currency and no longer adequate in an enterprise committed to… Continue reading Intersectionality – the essay (part 1)
Muslim feminists have too much to worry about already to think about homophobia
Once a week I meet with people studying gender in the Middle East and we talk about the assigned articles we’ve read during the week. Last week, it was about sexuality and homophobia. Emerging from our discussion on homosexuality rights in the Middle East (particularly in Lebanon and Palestine) is the question why many Muslim… Continue reading Muslim feminists have too much to worry about already to think about homophobia
The hidden penis: on censorship, the female gaze and the queer eye
Memory can sometimes be a strange beast. While thinking about this piece, I suddenly remembered an article that Cath Elliot wrote on the Bad Sex in Literature award two years ago under the title, Flaccid prose and the first comment the article provoked: flaccid is an unnecessary man-hating word to use in the title. I’m… Continue reading The hidden penis: on censorship, the female gaze and the queer eye
Book review: Women of colour and feminism
First published at Feminist Review. (Thanks Mandy!) If many postmodern feminists would have it, colour or“race” wouldn’t be of primary concern in theorising oppression; a woman would be seen as much more than her race, class, and sexuality. In other words, every woman’s experience of oppression is nuanced, different. And if the postmodern approach is… Continue reading Book review: Women of colour and feminism
Film review: Diagnosing Difference
This review also appears on Bitch Magazine’s latest issue No. 45, codenamed Art/See. As an undergraduate in genetics, I learned about “abnormal gender” from medical texts, which taught me that the line between what was female and what was male was clear; anything in between was a chromosomal disorder and an aberration in nature. The… Continue reading Film review: Diagnosing Difference
Worrying quote of the day
“Loads of people who work in the sex industry are academics – education is a very expensive habit,” said Catherine Stephens, an activist for the International Union of Sex Workers who has been a sex worker herself for 10 years. “At a brothel I worked in, I think I was the only one not doing a… Continue reading Worrying quote of the day
When did talking about race become taboo?
Whenever I’m back home in Malaysia, I’m frequently faced with the annoying question of what race I am. It’s annoying because it jumps right at me from nowhere, from people I hardly know, from strangers. Yes, it’s easy to come to the conclusion that some Malaysians are just rude but one thing is for sure,… Continue reading When did talking about race become taboo?
Feminisme: Antara mitos dan fakta
Ramai yang berpendapat bahawa golongan wanita dan lelaki feminis yang berpegang kepada prinsip “kesamaan” begitu khusyuk dengan isu-isu hak asasi manusia dan anasir-anasir berwajah kebaratan yang lain, seperti sekularisme dan liberalisme. Tidak kurang juga para bijak-pandai yang mendakwa gerakan feminisme sebagai satu-satunya punca keruntuhan akhlak dan rumahtangga. Ada pula yang khuatir feminisme menggalakkan persaingan antara… Continue reading Feminisme: Antara mitos dan fakta
Whose revolution? Critiquing Seyran Ates and her Islamic sexual revolution
The calls of lawyer, activist, and writer Seyran Ates for a sexual revolution in the heterogeneous Muslim world may surprise many, particularly when the movement is commonly associated with free love, hippies, and public nudity. In a recent interview with German magazine Spiegel, Ates begins with discussing what she means by this and her experiences… Continue reading Whose revolution? Critiquing Seyran Ates and her Islamic sexual revolution
Alicia Izharuddin 