Islam through the Eyes of Women Writing within Russia

• In Event: Liberation as a State of Mind: Free Minds in a Captive World, Captive Minds in a Free World

Abstract

This paper offers a comparative study of how women writers from different ethnic backgrounds within the Russian Federation imagine Islam. Specifically, the paper examines Tatar writer Guzel Yakhina’s Zulekha Opens Her Eyes (2015), Dagestani writer Alisa Ganieva’s Bride and Groom (2015), Siberian-Dagestani writer Marina Akhmedova’s Diary of a Suicide Bomber (2012), and Russian writer Natalia Eletskaia’s Salikhat (2022). By comparing how Muslim practices, especially in relation to female behavior and embodiment, are depicted in these works, the paper hypothesizes on the role and significance of Islam in theorizing a post-Soviet post-secular female identity.

Author

• Maria Hristova, Lewis and Clark College