Lost [and Found] in Translation: Narratives of Religion, Gender and Empowerment in an Arab-Latin Context

• In Event: El Impacto de la Educación Bilingüe en el Empoderamiento de la Mujer Latina.

Abstract

This fieldwork-based paper discusses the narrative of a young Muslim woman in a Latin context who constantly migrates between Arabic and Spanish discourses as a means to articulate her own rhetoric of Islam and womanhood, and by the same token challenge what she deems are misinterpretations of her religious-self in the workspace. Centered on agency, this paper questions notions of ‘gender empowerment’ and ‘Islamic fundamentalism’ in a Spanish-speaking majority context.

Author

• Juan F Caraballo-Resto, University of Puerto Rico