Women and Islam: Agency in Francophone and Italophone Autobiography

In the past few decades, different voices have emerged across Europe challenging the colonizing gaze that has traditionally been used to scrutinize Muslim women. Focusing on the Francophone and Italophone context, the event looks at how such voices contribute to the debate on Muslim women’s identity and agency in contemporary Europe, invites us to rethink traditional analyses that position the ‘non-Western’ as backwards and restrictive, and features a conversation with author Shirin Ramzanali Fazel (Lontano da Mogadiscio, 1994).

Panel 1: Women and Islam: the Italophone Context
Francesca Calamita (University of Virginia): 'Walking into a Minefield: The Hijab Controversy in 2023'
Simone Brioni (Stony Brook University) in conversation with Shirin Ramzanali Fazel: 'Collaboration as a Decolonial Practice' (Moderator: Maria Morelli, ILCS)
Maria Morelli (ILCS): 'The Colour of My Skin. Negotiating Italianness in Shirin Ramzanali Fazel’s Lontano da Mogadiscio
Beatrice Basile (University of Pennsylvania): 'Body, Identity and Symbols in Igiaba Scego’s La Linea del colore'

Panel 2: Women and Islam: the Francophone Context
Mehrnoosh Arzaghi (Independent Scholar): 'Assia Djebar's Portrayal of Women in Les femmes d'Alger dans leur appartement and Femme sans sépulture: Navigating Paradoxes of Language, Identity, and Women's Voices'
Farzaneh Mollazadeh Igdir (Independent Scholar): 'The Presence of the Powerful Feminine Other against the Oppressed Silent Feminine Self in Assia Djebar’s autobiographical work l’Amour, la Fantasia'
Oliver Brett (University of Nottingham): 'Translating the Body: La Petite Dernière, Fatima Daas'

Event organisers: Maria Morelli (ILCS, London) and Oliver Brett (University of Nottingham)

The event is organised by the Centre for the Study of Contemporary Women's Writing at the ILCS and sponsored by the University of London Cassal Trust