Beyond the canon: un-learning the “Muslim woman” in UK higher education classroom with a “pedagogy of opacity”

Abstract

Abstract My contribution to this special issue is non-orthodox. Far from Islamic Feminism's hermeneutics, and bearing in mind the limitations of anthropological works and representative paradigms in Orientalist critique, I take cues from postcolonial scholar Edouard Glissant’s (1990) seminal work, Poetics of Relations , notably his notions of détour , retour , and érrance , and draw on my experience in teaching gender studies in relation to the Middle East in UK higher education institutions to posit a “pedagogy of opacity” when producing knowledge on Othered bodies —in this instance, the fictive category of the “Muslim woman”. We see how a pedagogy of opacity forces home, self, and early mis/information about the other to realign and confront each other. This triadic realignment showcases the workings of home (the UK)—not of a geographically distant Islamic culture—in the manufacturing of the Muslim woman Other.