52.037 - Islam, Gender, and Education: (De)Constructing Tradition and Modernity in the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, and India

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

This panel aims to challenge the global educational discourses that present Islam and Muslim societies as antithesis of education and modernity. In this panel, the presenters examine the (de)construction of modernity/tradition by female subjects in different contexts. The case studies include construction of gendered spaces by Emirati Muslim female students in a higher education institution; reworking of choice by Muslim women from marginalized communities in Pakistan; contestation of global education discourses by Muslim girls from a minority background in Pakistan; and adoption of a “Muslim” form of clothing by educated Hindu women in India to claim modernity. This collection of paper reconceptualizes education and modernity as context-specific notions shaped by the complex gender, ethnic, religious, and colonial histories.

Sub Unit

• Division G - Social Context of Education / Division G - Section 2: Studies of diversity and variation with social contexts of education

Chair

• Arshad Imtiaz Ali, George Washington University

Papers

• Gendered Spaces in Education: Between Modernity and Tradition - Gergana Al Zeer, Zayed University

• What Does It Mean to Practice "Choice"? Education, Islam, and Gendered Modernity - Ayesha Khurshid, Florida State University

• Respectability, Precarity, and Contested Knowledges: Complicating the Truths About Girls' Schooling - Shenila Khoja-Moolji, University of Pennsylvania

• Contested Forms of Educated Modernity in India: The Shalwar Kameez - Payal Shah

Discussant

• Arshad Imtiaz Ali, George Washington University