B Is For Burqa , C Is For Censorship

The Miseducative Effects of Censoring Muslim Girls and Women's Sartorial Discourse

Bibliographic Data

ID8924273
AuthorsClaudia W Ruitenberg (0000-0002-0963-6246, University of British Columbia, corresponding author)
Year2008
Volume43
Issue1
Pages17-28
Publication date2008-01-17
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEducational Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0013-1946 • E-ISSN: 1532-6993
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00131940701796202
OpenAlexW2002898543
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited16

In this article, I add a discursive analysis to the discussion about Muslim girls and women's dress in non-Muslim educational contexts. I argue that a law or policy that prohibits the wearing of khimar, burqa, chador, niqab, hijab, or jilbab in the context of public schools is a form of censorship in educational contexts. This sartorial censorship is miseducative in the sense that it impedes the achievement of important educational goals, especially in public education. I consider the public nature of public education and discuss three sets of miseducative effects: First, the examination of discursive processes, including the production of social norms, is limited. Second, the critical uptake of the banned discourse by female Muslim students themselves is foreclosed, and their agency hindered. Third, a metadiscourse arises that translates individual sartorial discursive acts into generalized terms (such as “veils” and “headscarves”) without noticing what is lost in translation

Agency (philosophy · Censoring (clinical trials · Censorship · Context (archaeology · Linguistics · Media studies · Metadiscourse · Political science · Social science · Sociology · Gender Studies · Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence

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