Arab Muslim Women between Religion and Culture: An Islamic Feminist Study of Selected Contemporary Arab and American Speculative Fiction

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to explore representations of Arab Muslim women’s rights between religion and culture in three contemporary speculative fiction works by Arab, American and American Muslim female authors from an Islamic feminist lens. Islamic feminism endeavors to confront both the male-dominated cultural misinterpretations of the egalitarian message of Islam, and the Western misrepresentations and prejudice towards gender and Islam. This thesis employs close reading through a socio-historical approach. As such, it uses textual analysis as a main method for the analyses of the novels in question. The three literary works exhibit different standpoints on the topic. In Abdel Aziz’s dystopia The Queue (2013), women undergo injustice in their cultures with an aid from politics and certain understandings of Islam. Alternatively, McHugh’s sci-fi dystopia Nekropolis (2001) depicts Islam as a misogynist religion, the Arab cultures as backward and static, and women to be in perpetual submissiveness. On the other hand, Wilson’s cyberpunk fantasy Alif the Unseen (2012) portrays assertive women who are empowered rather than oppressed by Islam.