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Lisa Franke presents her project proposal submitted to the ERC on how Muslim women’s hair shapes everyday intimate lifeworlds, processes of social transformation, and new religious identities in contemporary Egypt, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates. By shifting the paradigm from the veil as a marker of inter alia religiosity, the project examines how the attitudes and practices of Muslim women towards their hair condition religious norms and social expectations.

Hair itself remains a neglected theme, despite being central to issues of identity, beauty and processes of individualisation. Even so, there is much contention concerning how Muslim women wear their hair, think and feel about it. Indeed, hair is at the very root of the global contemporary headscarf debate. Hair is both a mundane issue and a disputed one for many women. As such, it is a contentious field that spans the negotiation of gender dynamics, beauty ideals, political orientation, and religious norms.

About the speaker
Lisa Maria Franke is research assistant professor in Islamic Studies at Ghent University in the Department of Languages and Cultures. Her research and teaching focus on the social and intellectual history of Islam and being Muslim in the modern Middle East.

Her research interests include everyday history, eschatology, faith and identity, discourse analysis and gender studies; individuality, religious transformation processes and social dynamics; modern Arabic literature; language as a form of mediation in various text forms. Read more

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