‘Aisha’s hijab isn’t a whisper’: agency, visibility, and transformative otherwise in Muslim women’s picture books
(2026)- Abstract
- This chapter examines recent picture books by Muslim women authors as creative interventions in a literary field shaped by secularist norms, racialised market conventions, and the marginalisation of devotional themes. It begins by identifying the conceptual problems that structure scholarship on “religious children’s literature,” particularly the reliance on a rigid religious/secular binary. Such distinctions fail to capture the hybrid, ambiguous, and transformative creativity that characterises contemporary Muslim women’s authorship.
Through an analysis of acclaimed picture books that thematise the hijab, the chapter shows how recent literature negotiates visibility, agency, and gender by engaging with Islamically coded symbols,... (More) - This chapter examines recent picture books by Muslim women authors as creative interventions in a literary field shaped by secularist norms, racialised market conventions, and the marginalisation of devotional themes. It begins by identifying the conceptual problems that structure scholarship on “religious children’s literature,” particularly the reliance on a rigid religious/secular binary. Such distinctions fail to capture the hybrid, ambiguous, and transformative creativity that characterises contemporary Muslim women’s authorship.
Through an analysis of acclaimed picture books that thematise the hijab, the chapter shows how recent literature negotiates visibility, agency, and gender by engaging with Islamically coded symbols, practices, and aesthetics without reducing the stories to denominational didacticism. The chapter illuminates how recent literature depicts everyday Muslim girlhood through motifs of social care, embodied agency, and publicly visible piety, challenging genre boundaries and forging innovative engagements with devotional tradition.
Far from merely addressing gaps in representation, these authors and artists hence expand the imaginative and affective repertoires of the field, constituting a transformative literary otherwise: a creative reimagining of childhood that contests minoritising frameworks by mobilising complex social experience, devotional virtues and aesthetics, and the joys and anxieties of Muslim selfhood as literary-cum-social resources for everyday life. The chapter concludes by reflecting on the possibilities—and limits—of such interventions within a publishing landscape still governed by secularist and minoritising market conventions.
(Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/505b64ec-2905-4d49-9a26-5fd0df253a43
- author
- Janson, Torsten LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2026
- type
- Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
- publication status
- unpublished
- subject
- host publication
- Muslim Women's Popular Fiction
- publisher
- Manchester University Press
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 505b64ec-2905-4d49-9a26-5fd0df253a43
- date added to LUP
- 2025-12-08 17:11:57
- date last changed
- 2025-12-11 10:42:51
@inbook{505b64ec-2905-4d49-9a26-5fd0df253a43,
abstract = {{This chapter examines recent picture books by Muslim women authors as creative interventions in a literary field shaped by secularist norms, racialised market conventions, and the marginalisation of devotional themes. It begins by identifying the conceptual problems that structure scholarship on “religious children’s literature,” particularly the reliance on a rigid religious/secular binary. Such distinctions fail to capture the hybrid, ambiguous, and transformative creativity that characterises contemporary Muslim women’s authorship.<br/><br/>Through an analysis of acclaimed picture books that thematise the hijab, the chapter shows how recent literature negotiates visibility, agency, and gender by engaging with Islamically coded symbols, practices, and aesthetics without reducing the stories to denominational didacticism. The chapter illuminates how recent literature depicts everyday Muslim girlhood through motifs of social care, embodied agency, and publicly visible piety, challenging genre boundaries and forging innovative engagements with devotional tradition.<br/><br/>Far from merely addressing gaps in representation, these authors and artists hence expand the imaginative and affective repertoires of the field, constituting a transformative literary otherwise: a creative reimagining of childhood that contests minoritising frameworks by mobilising complex social experience, devotional virtues and aesthetics, and the joys and anxieties of Muslim selfhood as literary-cum-social resources for everyday life. The chapter concludes by reflecting on the possibilities—and limits—of such interventions within a publishing landscape still governed by secularist and minoritising market conventions.<br/>}},
author = {{Janson, Torsten}},
booktitle = {{Muslim Women's Popular Fiction}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{Manchester University Press}},
title = {{‘Aisha’s hijab isn’t a whisper’: agency, visibility, and transformative otherwise in Muslim women’s picture books}},
year = {{2026}},
}