Author: Inaash Islam

Published in: Feminist Formations, Vol. 35, Issue 2, Summer 2023, pp. 174-197

Publication Date: September 28, 2023

Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press

Abstract:

What is the relationship between Islamic principles of modesty and practices of aesthetic labor in the industries of influencer marketing and fashion? Inaash Islam responds to this question by examining the aesthetic labor of self-proclaimed modest Muslim female social media influencers to show how Islamic modesty—as it is understood via patriarchal interpretations of Islamic texts, and by cultural authorities in secular circles of fashion, is deemed inherently antithetical to Muslim female aesthetic labor in the fashion and influencer marketing industries. Her findings show that Muslimah influencers face a doubly burdened challenge: on the one hand, Muslim women are expected to modify their performances of modesty to align with the secular expectations of aesthetic labor in these industries, but on the other, they are expected to observe modesty according to patriarchal interpretations of Islamic texts. In either case, failure to abide by racialized and gendered expectations renders Muslim women vulnerable to critique from Muslim and non-Muslim communities. She argues that this conflict illustrates that Islamic modesty is deemed fundamental to contemporary conceptions and embodied performances of Muslim womanhood online and plays a key role in shaping racialized and gendered expectations of Muslim women held by Muslim and non-Muslim communities in the west.

Minor in Islamic Studies

The minor in Islamic Studies is open to all undergraduates regardless of major. It provides the intellectual and linguistic training to approach Islam — and the world — in a historically and culturally informed way, challenging stereotypes and misconceptions while exploring the diversity and complexity of the world’s second-largest religion.

Courses

– Concepts: How to Read Hindu and Islamic Texts
– Jews, Muslims, and Christians in the Medieval World
– Independent Study
– Politics and Poetics of Mobility in Africa
– What Does it Mean to be Religious?
– Modern and Contemporary Art in South Asia
– Themes in Medieval Islamic Thought
– Introduction to the Art of Asia

Faculty

• Niloofar Haeri (PhD, University of Pennsylvania): Director, Program in Islamic Studies; Professor, Anthropology
• Ryan Calder (PhD, University of California, Berkeley): Director of Undergraduate Studies; Assistant Professor, Sociology
• Gabriele Ferrario: Visiting Assistant Professor
• Homayra Ziad (Phd, Yale University): Lecturer

Advisory Board

• Paul Delnero, Associate Professor
• Tamer el-Leithy, Assistant Professor of History
• M. Ali Khan, Abram Hutzler Professor of Political Economy
• Naveeda Khan, Associate Professor of Anthropology
• Glenn M. Schwartz, Whiting Professor of Archeology, Near Eastern Studies

Website: https://krieger.jhu.edu/islamic/