Annelies Moors

Migrant Domestic Workers: Debating Transnationalism, Identity Politics, and Family Relations. A Review Essay

If in the 1970s modernization theorists predicted the demise of paid domestic work, developments during the last two decades have proven them wrong. Both in the North and in the South the number of those engaged in paid domestic work has grown rapidly. In some cases, like China and India, intra-state migration is predominant. Elsewhere, in the United States, Canada, and Western-Europe, as well as in growth areas such as the Gulf States, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and Malaysia, the presence of large numbers of migrant domestic workers from abroad has been particularly striking. In fact, in a number of cases the growth of domestic labor as a field of employment has led to the feminization of outmigration. By the late 1990s, there were between 1.3 and 1.5 million Asian women working in the Middle East. Whereas in the 1970s women formed about 15 percent of the migrant labor force, in the mid-1990s almost 60 percent of the Filipino migrant labor force was female, and women constituted approximately 80 percent of the Sri Lankan and the Indonesian migrant labor force (Gamburd 2000:35).

Fashionable Muslims: Notions of Self, Religion, and Society in Sanà

Abstract Most Sanàni women appear in public completely covered in black, often including a face-veil. At first sight, this locates Sanà, the capital of Yemen, outside the world of fashion. This article, however, argues that fashion is part and parcel of womens outdoor dressing styles in Sanà. While some women link their dressing styles to authentic Sanàni customs and traditions and others highlight ideological and religious convictions, all refer in one way or another to matters of style and aesthetics. Not only modernist women are engaged in wearing fashionable outerwear, but also women protagonists of an Islamist position, who may be critical of fashion as an institution, find it hard to avoid fashion altogether. Young women who wear covered dress and face-veils in order to conform to what is common in their social circles are also affected by the globalization of dress and attach much importance to being fashionable. Such sartorial practices are not simply a form of Islamic fashion, but rather are a strong example of a shift from a localized aesthetic to a more cosmopolitan style of dress, which remains within the boundaries of what Sanàni women consider morally and religiously acceptable.

Embodying the nation: Maha Saca's post-intifada postcards

This article deals with the cultural politics of nationalism. It is argued that both the production and display of embroidered dresses and the particular ways in which these are presented on one set of picture postcards are part of the material formation of the Palestinian nation. Whereas the dresses on these postcards draw attention to a rural heritage that stands for territory and rootedness, the women-bodies presenting these dresses, both in their appearance and through the act of public presentation, express urban modernity. Such a style of representation avoids associations of the rural with “backwardness” and enables the inclusion of elements of the rural in the modern national project.

CHATTING ABOUT MARRIAGE WITH FEMALE MIGRANTS TO SYRIA

The increasing number of women migrating to Syria from Europe has not only drawn the attention of the media and the security forces but also of researchers. Publications often either undervalue or overvalue womens agency, presenting them as victims of unscrupulous men or foregrounding their militant activism. As many authors work in the field of radicalisation and terrorism studies and use public online posts, they focus on the more radical, activist women who are keen to present themselves to the world at large. In our research project we work with a different focus and employ a different method. Our interest in how these women arrange their marriages and our use of private chatting produces other kinds of knowledge. In contrast to what labels such as ‘jihadi brides’ suggest, the women themselves desire to live under IS rule, while IS increasingly regulates these marriages. Rather than desiring to become female fighters or recruiting others, they see themselves as responsible for domestic life and attempt to normalize life under IS rule.

Muslim cultural politics: what's Islam got to do with it?

Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible.

Popularizing islam: muslims and materiality—introduction

ABSTRACT This special issue centers on how Islam becomes present in the public through material, tangible forms, including mosques, headscarves, and movies in a wide variety of locations, such as Morocco, Egypt, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, and the Netherlands. It zones in on how both nation-states and Islamic movements have developed new kinds of cultural politics, taking into account the twin forces of the state governance of Islam and consumer capitalism.

NiqaBitch and Princess Hijab : Niqab activism, satire and street art

In this contribution I discuss two styles of presenting face-veils in the public that have a critical edge: the video clip NiqaBitch shakes Paris and princess Hijab’s street art. Whereas both visual forms play with ambiguity, they do so in different ways. The videoclip - bringing together a long face-veil and minishorts - produces virtual publics that contest each other along multiple lines of differentiation, including politics, satire, and aesthetic style. Princess Hijab refers to her work with the term ‘hijabising’, which she considers as an act of resistance against the ‘visual terrorism’ of the advertising industry.

Secular Rule and Islamic Ethics: Engaging with Muslim-Only Marriages in the Netherlands

From the mid-2000s, Dutch policy makers, the media, and others have started to define Muslim-only marriages as a problem. This contribution unpacks a recent hype, when a Dutch TV station broadcasted the conclusion of a polygamous marriage at a mosque, while simultaneously the largest right-wing political party presented an initiative to further criminalize Muslim-only marriages. In both the TV program and the policy initiative, the same feminist organization, Femmes for Freedom, was involved. Using liberal arguments such as freedom of partner choice to limit the freedom of a religious minority, interestingly, the dividing lines were neither between Muslims and non-Muslims, nor between more ‘mainstream’ and more ‘ Salafi -oriented’ mosques. Arguing for the need to protect women, many supported the current Dutch law demanding that couples conclude a civil marriage prior to a religious marriage, as the former would protect women better, while others called for better educating Muslims about women’s rights in Islam. Whereas the voices of women in Muslim-only marriages were not heard, our research with converts entering into polygamous marriages indicates that they may opt for these marriages themselves with their main concerns centering on the equal treatment of wives and men’s openness about polygamy.

Women, Property and Islam: Palestinian Experiences 1920-1990.

1. Introduction: women and property Part I. Politics, Economy and Kinship: 2. The lives of four women: introducing property and politics 3. Women and inheritance Part II. The Power: 4. The dower: marriage, gender and social stratification 5. Marriage: the prompt dower 6. Repudiation and widowhood: the deferred dower Part III. Paid Labour and Property: 7. Poverty, wage labour and property 8. Gender and garment production 9. Education, professional work and property 10. Women and property revisited.