Category: Media

Contesting narratives of the divine: Film religi and Islamic discourses in post-Soeharto Indonesia

Uploading more of my junk here. The following is my research proposal: The recent upsurge in Islamically-themed films, or film religi, in Indonesia can be viewed as a reflection of the increasing prominence of Islam discernible in the media and consumption patterns (Widodo, 2008). Following the commercial success of Ayat-ayat Cinta (Verses of Love) in… Continue reading Contesting narratives of the divine: Film religi and Islamic discourses in post-Soeharto Indonesia

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

Marketing Muslim lifestyles and redefining modesty

This post was first published on Muslimah Media Watch If a hijab in Pucci-designed print could speak, what would it say? I attended a seminar presented by Professor Reina Lewis on Muslim women’s lifestyle magazines last night and was faced with this bizarre question. It all started with the actual seminar itself, which showcased the… Continue reading Marketing Muslim lifestyles and redefining modesty

Questioning the veil, questioning the questioner

First published at Muslimah Media Watch. An edited version is published on altmuslimah.com Today we witness postcolonial Orientalism coming to grips with its obsession with the hijab. While the white French elite seem fixed on debating its symbols, the British media are asking why women choose to wear it. Once, the obsession was an obvious… Continue reading Questioning the veil, questioning the questioner

Jamie Oliver, food, and Eurocentrism

If you follow Jamie Oliver’s cooking programmes, alternatively known as The Naked Chef, you’ll notice that his cool and effortless boyish attitude to cooking strikes a chord with the young, mostly male, upwardly-mobile, and aspiring members of the British middle class; it’s about an obsession with fresh, locally-sourced or grow-your-own ingredients, and recipes firmly grounded… Continue reading Jamie Oliver, food, and Eurocentrism

Film Review: The Mosque in Morgantown

First published at Feminist Review. Muslimah Media Watch has also the goods. Reading the official synopsis of The Mosque in Morgantown, I quickly got the impression that it was a documentary film that revolved around the battle between journalist-activist Asra Nomani and “the extremists” in her hometown Morgantown, West Virginia. It is the kind of… Continue reading Film Review: The Mosque in Morgantown

Mild toxic waste: Malaysian Women's TV Programmes

Cross-posted from Muslimah Media Watch As I count the hours to the day I return to Malaysia, I’m compiling my notes and thoughts for a small research project on media images of women in the capital. But I’ve already started collecting preliminary data; my immense curiosity in the representation of Muslim Malay women in the… Continue reading Mild toxic waste: Malaysian Women's TV Programmes