Trust Building, Social Learning, and Muslim Women Activism in Malaysia, with Saleena Saleem (Weds. Dec. 7, 2022)

BU’s Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs (CURA) and the BU Center for the Study of Asia
invite you to a lecture and discussion with

Saleena Saleem

PhD Candidate in Sociology, University of Liverpool UK, and CURA Visiting Student

Trust Building, Social Learning, and Muslim Women Activism in Malaysia

Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2022 at 4:00 pm ET,

121 Bay State Road, Boston University

One contributing factor to socio-political polarisation in Malaysia is the repeated emotive trope of a secular-versus-religious dichotomy that is reinforced through racial politics, (un)civil society activism, and media frames, especially when contentious issues involving Islamic law, often related to women and gender, capture public attention. Not only do the secular-religious frame heighten inter-ethnic tensions in multi-racial Malaysia, but it is also implicated in the larger patterns of differential power relations that shape Malay Muslim women activists’ experiences. Based on original interview data with Malay Muslim women activists from ideologically different advocacy groups (secular, Islamic feminist, and Islamist), this seminar discusses how the conditions of polarizing racial politics in Malaysia motivate the younger demographic of Muslim women activists from different ideological groups to be more willing to focus on their commonalities rather than their differences. Inter-group engagements and instances of social learning between women activists reveal emerging points of intersection in feminist understandings. This unsettles the notion that political struggles between secular and religious-oriented advocacy groups are a zero-sum endeavour.