'Cover your face for the photograph please': gender issues, the media and Muslim women in Australia

New Delhi, Indi

'Taking things personally' : young Muslim women in South Australia discuss identity, religious racism and media representations

Based on the analysis of interviews with young Muslim women in South Australia, and the analysis of two daily newspapers, The Australian and The Advertiser, this thesis looks at themes of religious racism, representation, identity, and resistance to racism. This thesis offers critiques of existing terminology used to describe negativity and hostility based on religious affiliation. It also offers strong arguments for the use of new terminology : religious racism. This thesis argues that the lived experiences of young Muslim women in South Australia are fraught with this racism. It argues that claims of a 'secular' society mask the continuing influence of a Christian heritage and assist in the subordination of religious minorities, particularly Muslims. Following similar research in other contexts, this thesis argues that the news media in Australia ( especially newspapers ) plays a significant role in the ( re ) production of religious racism, primarily through the repeated use of negative representations and stereotypes of Muslims. A number of textual strategies are utilised in this process such as the use of negatively loaded words ( eg 'terrorist' or 'fanatics' ), the types of photographs used, and the kinds of stories deemed newsworthy. Numerous examples of such racism are presented in the discourse analysis of representations of Muslims and Islam in the two newspapers. This thesis also addresses the direct impact of such representations on the participants in the study. Although this thesis presents a number of narratives of religious racism as experienced by the women, it does not present these women as passive victims. It argues that in negotiating, dealing with and challenging such racism, these women exhibit personal agency as well as courage and resourcefulness. This thesis acknowledges both the significant impact of religious racism on the women as well as their resistance to it. This thesis utilises literature from the field of race and whiteness studies to critique concepts of hegemonic national identity that marginalise Muslim communities and individuals. It argues that, although Muslims may not figure in hegemonic national identity, they construct they own sense of national belonging that encompasses their identities as Muslims, as women and as Australians.Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Adelaide, School of Social Sciences, 2006

'They don't want us to practice our faith': young South Australian Muslim women & their experiences of religious racism in high school

Coldstream, Vi

'Is being Australian about being white?': Australian whiteness, national identity and Muslim Women

Adelaide, S

Challenging the myth of the happy celibate: Muslim women negotiating contemporary relationships

In recent decades, the age of marriage in many minority Muslim communities has risen so that significant numbers of Muslims in these contexts are remaining unmarried into their late 20 s and beyond. As with other communities in Western contexts, Muslim communities have also experienced a rising divorce rate, leading to many more single women. These social and demographic changes, combined with traditional attitudes towards female sexuality and virginity, have led to a rise in the number of women who have either never had a sexual encounter or who no longer have sexual encounters. Cultural discourses surrounding virginity and female celibacy frequently conflate the virtue of refusing sexual encounters outside of marriage with happiness and satisfaction at 'choosing the right path'. However, these discourses negate or downplay women's sexual desires and result in women often feeling trapped into having to perform the 'myth of the happy celibate'. To disrupt this myth is to unleash the potentially destructive power of female sexuality, while to openly challenge it is to risk being positioned as a 'slut'

Australia's 'shy' de-secularisation process

In many parts of the world religion has re-entered the public sphere to such an extent that it has undermined the 'hard line' secularisation thesis - that is, the assumption that religion would disappear in Western, modernised societies. Since this 'hard line' view should not be happening, views on secularisation have had to be revised. Some academics (for example, Bruce 2002, 2006; Norris and Inglehart, 2004) explain that secularisation is still happening but in much less extreme process than first predicted, while others (for example, Richardson, 1985; Haddon, 1987; Brown, 1992; Warner, 1993; Kepel, 1994) propose that there is a reverse process and that secularisation is losing momentum. In accordance with this latter view, recent theories in the sociology of religion (see, for example, Martin, 2005; Casanova, 2006; Davie, 2006) have pushed the debate further by applying Eisenstadt's (2000) multiple modernities paradigm