Shirin Edwin
Biographic Data
| ID | 242220 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Shirin Edwin |
| GIVEN NAMES | Shirin |
| FAMILY NAME | Edwin |
| SIGNATURE | EDWIN S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Sam Houston State University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 7 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 13 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Privately Empowered: Expressing Feminism in Islam in Northern Nigerian Fiction
Privately Empowered responds to the lack of adequate attention paid to Islam in Africa in comparison to the Middle East and the Arab world. Shirin Edwin points to the embrace between Islam and politics that has limited Islamic feminist discourse to regions where it evolves in tandem with the nation-state and is commonly understood in terms of activism, social affiliations, or struggles for legal reform. Edwin examines the novels of Zaynab Alkali,…
Racing Away from Race: The Literary Aesthetics of Islam and Gender in Mohammed Naseehu Ali’s The Prophet of Zongo Street and Abubakar Adam Ibrahim’s The Whispering Trees
Some literary discussions on Islam in West Africa argue that African Muslims owe allegiance more to Arab race and culture since the religion has an Arab origin while owing less to indigenous and therefore “authentic” African cultures. Most notably, in his famous quarrel with Ali Mazrui, the Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka wrenches race to serve a tendentious historicism about African Muslims as racially Arab and therefore foreign to African culture. …
(Un)solving global challenges: African short stories, literary awards and the question of audience
Recent discussions on the African short story tend to focus on the efforts to promote short-story writing, especially through literary prizes. Critics sceptical of such prizes argue that writers may be tempted to write only on topics that the audience hosting the prize is eager to read about. Only rarely do such conversations on the African short story critically engage with the stories. Doing so would reveal that four recent award-winning Africa…
(Un)Holy Alliances
This article examines the tenor of Islamic spirituality in Leila Aboulela’s The Translator (1999). By contrasting my analysis with those studies that lay excessive emphasis on the novel as symbolic of an East versus West theory, as well as a conflict between colonial and postcolonial societies, religions, and cultures, I argue that the novel is equally, if not more, about the spiritual faith of an ordinary Muslim woman grappling with emotional an…
Underlining religious sidelining: Islamic Feminism and Marxism in Mohammed Umar's Amina
Shaping futures and feminisms: Qur’anic schools in West African francophone fiction
This article examines the representation of female education in Qur’anic schools in a selection of West African francophone novels. I argue that in being the earliest form of education for most Muslim women and also a neglected topic of scholarly interest, the Qur’anic school shapes their feminisms in more significant ways than has been acknowledged since scholarly attention to Islamic education in West Africa has mostly focused on the experience…
Expressing Islamic feminism in Mariama Bâ's So Long a Letter
This article examines the presence of a strictly Qur'anic base shaping the Islamic feminism of Ramatoulaye, the narrator and main protagonist of Mariama Bâ's francophone classic So Long a Letter (1979). I argue that the widely circulated insistence by critics and readers of Bâ's epistolary style novel on the practice of Islam in West Africa, particularly in Senegal, as a syncretic presence eagerly adapting to indigenous non-Islamic beliefs and pr…
Veiling the Obvious: African feminist theory and the hijab in the African novel
This article is predicated on the view that African Muslim women do not necessarily perceive Islam or Islamic practice as incompatible with their goals and aspirations of education, independence or leadership. Drawing on the representations of the hijab in three African novels, this paper will simultaneously affirm and challenge certain orientations within African and particularly African feminist theories vis-á-vis African Muslim women and Islam…
Working” and “Studying” Muslim Women: African Feminist Theory and the African Novel
Subverting Social Customs: The Representation of Food in Three West African Francophone Novels
Food, eating habits, and culinary customs in West African societies are embedded with deep social symbolisms and meanings signifying kinship ties, friendship, political relations, and social status. This symbolism is defined as commensality, which means more than just sharing and consumption of food. Through a selection of West African francophone novels, this paper examines the trope of food, eating, and culinary customs to reveal the ways the n…
A Telltale Name
African Muslims in France: Walking Parallel Bars in Calixthe Beyala 's Le Petit prince de Belleville
African Muslims in France: Walking Parallel Bars in Calixthe Beyala’s Le Petit prince de Belleville Shirin Edwin In his book, Islam and the West African Novel: The Politics of Representation, Ahmed Bangura identifies a “[...] deeply ingrained pattern of prejudice toward and denial of Islam in European writing on Africa” (23). Using Bangura’s remark as the chief motivation, this paper will posit the fact that as a crucial thematic foundation and a…
African Muslim Communities in Diaspora: The Quest for a Muslim Space in Ken Bugul's Le baobab fou
The essay explores the Islamic dimension of the novel Le baobab fou (The Abandoned Baobab) by the Senegalese author Ken Bugul to demonstrate that the identity crisis felt by the protagonist Ken in the novel is not only of an African but that of an African Muslim in particular and that this psychological alienation of Muslims provoked by colonialism did not end with colonialism but continues even today as seen in Ken’s experiences in Belgium in a …
(Un)solving global challenges: African short stories, literary awards and the question of audience
Recent discussions on the African short story tend to focus on the efforts to promote short-story writing, especially through literary prizes. Critics sceptical of such prizes argue that writers may be tempted to write only on topics that the audience hosting the prize is eager to read about. Only rarely do such conversations on the African short story critically engage with the stories. Doing so would reveal that four recent award-winning Africa…
(Un)Holy Alliances
This article examines the tenor of Islamic spirituality in Leila Aboulela’s The Translator (1999). By contrasting my analysis with those studies that lay excessive emphasis on the novel as symbolic of an East versus West theory, as well as a conflict between colonial and postcolonial societies, religions, and cultures, I argue that the novel is equally, if not more, about the spiritual faith of an ordinary Muslim woman grappling with emotional an…
Racing Away from Race: The Literary Aesthetics of Islam and Gender in Mohammed Naseehu Ali’s The Prophet of Zongo Street and Abubakar Adam Ibrahim’s The Whispering Trees
Some literary discussions on Islam in West Africa argue that African Muslims owe allegiance more to Arab race and culture since the religion has an Arab origin while owing less to indigenous and therefore “authentic” African cultures. Most notably, in his famous quarrel with Ali Mazrui, the Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka wrenches race to serve a tendentious historicism about African Muslims as racially Arab and therefore foreign to African culture. …
African Muslim Communities in Diaspora: The Quest for a Muslim Space in Ken Bugul's Le baobab fou
The essay explores the Islamic dimension of the novel Le baobab fou (The Abandoned Baobab) by the Senegalese author Ken Bugul to demonstrate that the identity crisis felt by the protagonist Ken in the novel is not only of an African but that of an African Muslim in particular and that this psychological alienation of Muslims provoked by colonialism did not end with colonialism but continues even today as seen in Ken’s experiences in Belgium in a …
African Muslim Communities in Diaspora: The Quest for a Muslim Space in Ken Bugul's Le baobab fou
The essay explores the Islamic dimension of the novel Le baobab fou (The Abandoned Baobab) by the Senegalese author Ken Bugul to demonstrate that the identity crisis felt by the protagonist Ken in the novel is not only of an African but that of an African Muslim in particular and that this psychological alienation of Muslims provoked by colonialism did not end with colonialism but continues even today as seen in Ken’s experiences in Belgium in a …
African Muslims in France: Walking Parallel Bars in Calixthe Beyala 's Le Petit prince de Belleville
African Muslims in France: Walking Parallel Bars in Calixthe Beyala’s Le Petit prince de Belleville Shirin Edwin In his book, Islam and the West African Novel: The Politics of Representation, Ahmed Bangura identifies a “[...] deeply ingrained pattern of prejudice toward and denial of Islam in European writing on Africa” (23). Using Bangura’s remark as the chief motivation, this paper will posit the fact that as a crucial thematic foundation and a…
A Telltale Name
Veiling the Obvious: African feminist theory and the hijab in the African novel
This article is predicated on the view that African Muslim women do not necessarily perceive Islam or Islamic practice as incompatible with their goals and aspirations of education, independence or leadership. Drawing on the representations of the hijab in three African novels, this paper will simultaneously affirm and challenge certain orientations within African and particularly African feminist theories vis-á-vis African Muslim women and Islam…
Working” and “Studying” Muslim Women: African Feminist Theory and the African Novel
Subverting Social Customs: The Representation of Food in Three West African Francophone Novels
Food, eating habits, and culinary customs in West African societies are embedded with deep social symbolisms and meanings signifying kinship ties, friendship, political relations, and social status. This symbolism is defined as commensality, which means more than just sharing and consumption of food. Through a selection of West African francophone novels, this paper examines the trope of food, eating, and culinary customs to reveal the ways the n…
Expressing Islamic feminism in Mariama Bâ's So Long a Letter
This article examines the presence of a strictly Qur'anic base shaping the Islamic feminism of Ramatoulaye, the narrator and main protagonist of Mariama Bâ's francophone classic So Long a Letter (1979). I argue that the widely circulated insistence by critics and readers of Bâ's epistolary style novel on the practice of Islam in West Africa, particularly in Senegal, as a syncretic presence eagerly adapting to indigenous non-Islamic beliefs and pr…
Shaping futures and feminisms: Qur’anic schools in West African francophone fiction
This article examines the representation of female education in Qur’anic schools in a selection of West African francophone novels. I argue that in being the earliest form of education for most Muslim women and also a neglected topic of scholarly interest, the Qur’anic school shapes their feminisms in more significant ways than has been acknowledged since scholarly attention to Islamic education in West Africa has mostly focused on the experience…
(Un)Holy Alliances
This article examines the tenor of Islamic spirituality in Leila Aboulela’s The Translator (1999). By contrasting my analysis with those studies that lay excessive emphasis on the novel as symbolic of an East versus West theory, as well as a conflict between colonial and postcolonial societies, religions, and cultures, I argue that the novel is equally, if not more, about the spiritual faith of an ordinary Muslim woman grappling with emotional an…
Underlining religious sidelining: Islamic Feminism and Marxism in Mohammed Umar's Amina
Privately Empowered: Expressing Feminism in Islam in Northern Nigerian Fiction
Privately Empowered responds to the lack of adequate attention paid to Islam in Africa in comparison to the Middle East and the Arab world. Shirin Edwin points to the embrace between Islam and politics that has limited Islamic feminist discourse to regions where it evolves in tandem with the nation-state and is commonly understood in terms of activism, social affiliations, or struggles for legal reform. Edwin examines the novels of Zaynab Alkali,…
Racing Away from Race: The Literary Aesthetics of Islam and Gender in Mohammed Naseehu Ali’s The Prophet of Zongo Street and Abubakar Adam Ibrahim’s The Whispering Trees
Some literary discussions on Islam in West Africa argue that African Muslims owe allegiance more to Arab race and culture since the religion has an Arab origin while owing less to indigenous and therefore “authentic” African cultures. Most notably, in his famous quarrel with Ali Mazrui, the Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka wrenches race to serve a tendentious historicism about African Muslims as racially Arab and therefore foreign to African culture. …
(Un)solving global challenges: African short stories, literary awards and the question of audience
Recent discussions on the African short story tend to focus on the efforts to promote short-story writing, especially through literary prizes. Critics sceptical of such prizes argue that writers may be tempted to write only on topics that the audience hosting the prize is eager to read about. Only rarely do such conversations on the African short story critically engage with the stories. Doing so would reveal that four recent award-winning Africa…
Sociology (12 works) · Gender Studies (11 works) · Gender Studies (9 works) · Islam (8 works) · Philosophy (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Philosophy (7 works) · Political science (7 works) · Feminism (6 works) · History (6 works)