Hair, Identity, Beauty, and the Self in Muslim Contexts: Emotional Landscapes and Changing Femininities

Description: In this project, I aim to analyse the importance of women’s hair, bringing new focus to everyday intimate lifeworlds, processes of social transformation, and new religious identities in Egypt, Sudan, Lebanon and the UAE. I will thus have a significant impact on the global headscarf debate. While an abundance of literature and research exists on the headscarf, hair itself remains a neglected theme, despite being central to issues of identity, beauty and sexuality. The ways that women wear their hair, think about it, and feel about it are the subject of much contestation. Hair is both a mundane and a disputed issue for many women. As such, it is a conflictual field that spans the negotiation of power relations, gender hierarchies, sexual politics, religious norms and consumer trends. Hair is an emotional, intimate matter and a political, religious and social symbol. The study of hair thus allows for key insights into the multitude of “inner” and “outer” experiences that women face.
Website research project: https://research.ugent.be/web/result/project/68fb0c91-82ec-11ee-a12f-13e781176a7f/details/en
Promoter(s): Lisa Franke
Faculty / Faculties: Faculty of Arts and Philosophy
Period of time: 2024 - 2028