Writing Body and Culture: Mohja Kahf’s The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf

Year 2013, Issue: 38, 49 - 64, 01.10.2013

Katherine Lashley

Abstract

Books by and about Muslim Americans are becoming more widely read. One such book is The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf, A Novel 2006 by Mohja Kahf. Novels like The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf tend to deal with significant issues for Muslim American women such as education, family obligations, marriage, the body and sexuality, and independence. Although these novels are becoming more popular, they have not garnered much attention. Moreover, these books must be analyzed in feminist and postcolonial ways in order to understand fully the importance and meaning of their characters, situations, and how they reflect the lives of some Muslim American women. This article will focus on the imperialist overtones of double consciousness and “unhomeliness” in The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf and will analyze how the main character, Khadra, challenges imperialism and presents a different view of colonialism than perhaps expected and previously conveyed in older articles and books. Khadra manages to challenge imperialism by coming to terms with her double consciousness and her own unique, hybrid, identity. By deciding for herself how much of each culture to adapt, Khadra also exhibits a transnational feminist stance concerning her body, sexuality, education, and life.

References

• Abdurraquib, Samaa. “Hijab Scenes: Muslim Women, Migration, and Hijab in Immigrant Muslim Literature.” MELUS 31.4 (2006): 55–70. Print.
• Bhabha, Homi K. The Location of Culture. New York and London: Routledge, 1994. Print.
• Bressler, Charles E. Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2007. Print.
• Darraj, Susan Muaddi. “Personal and Political: The Dynamics of Arab American Feminism.” Arab & Arab American Feminisms: Gender, Violence, & Belonging. Ed. Rabab Abdulhadi, Evelyn Alsultany, and Nadine Naber. 248–60. Syracuse: Syracuse UP, 2011. Print.
• Davis, Hilary E. “An Interview with Mohja Kahf.” Intercultural Education 18.4 (2007): 383–88. Print.
• Du Bois, W. E. B. The Souls of Black Folk. 1903. Hazelton, PA: Pennsylvania State U, 2006. Print.
• Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck, Jane I. Smith, and Kathleen M. Moore. “Persistent Stereotypes.” Muslim Women in America: The Challenge of Islamic Identity Today. Ed. Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad, Jane I. Smith, Kathleen M. Moore. 21–40. New York: Oxford UP, 2006. Print.
• Hasan, Asma Gull. “American Muslim Women: Between Two Worlds.” American Muslims: The New Generation. Ed. Asma Gull Hasan. 107– 29. New York and London: Continuum. 2002. Print.
• Kahf, Mohja. The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf. New York: Carroll and Graf, 2006. Print.
• Kayyali, Randa A. “Literature.” The Arab Americans. 125–28. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing, 2006. Print.
• Mohanty, Chandra Talpade. “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses.” Boundary 2 12.3 (1984): 333–58. Print.
• Smith, Jane I. “Women and the Muslim American Family.” Islam in America. 104–25. New York: Columbia UP, 1999. Print.
• Zine, Jasmin. “Reading Muslim Women and Muslim Women Reading Back: Transnational Feminist Reading Practices, Pedagogy and Ethical Concerns.” Intercultural Education 18.4 (2007): 271–80. Print.