Negotiating Muslim Women’s Rights and Identity in American Diaspora Space: An Islamic Feminist Study of Kahf’s The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf

This paper addresses the narrative of a Muslim woman who struggles to negotiateher rights, identity and sense of belonging in an American diaspora space. Despite thedifficulties and obstacles of being regarded as an “other” in her adopted homeland, KhadraShamy, the protagonist in Mohja Kahf’s The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf, chooses tomaintain her Islamic identity with a new interpretation of her faith while attempting to build a hybrid identity as an American Muslim. The narrative implies that not all Muslimsinterpret their religion in the same way and that Muslims identify themselves with Islamto differing degrees. Hence, the media and critics of Islam clearly distort social realitywhen they depict all Muslims as extremists and all Muslim women as abject individuals. Inaddition, the employment of Islamic feminism in the analysis of the novel is an approachthat can help enhance our knowledge concerning problems connected to the patriarchy thatare pertinent in many Muslim communities, including ones in the West. The diaspora spacein America has become a platform for Muslim women to gain more freedom, particularlythe freedom to negotiate their rights and identities and to reinterpret religious teachingsin a new light, a freedom that they may not be able to achieve in some Muslim-majoritycountries.