<p>Veiled unveilings</p>

Veiled unveilings

This thesis deals with the conversion stories of five female converts to Islam; considering the expectations my interlocutors have faced, the pressures to tell a certain type of narrative, the formation of their practice and the stories they choose to narrate. The concept of an ‘epiphany’ narrative, a story of inspiration and divine intervention, will be discussed and placed into tension with ‘rupture’ narratives; the stories my interlocutors tell in order to ‘make sense’ of their conversions.

This thesis deals with the conversion stories of five female converts to Islam; considering the expectations my interlocutors have faced, the pressures to tell a certain type of narrative, the formation of their practice and the stories they choose to narrate. The concept of an ‘epiphany’ narrative, a story of inspiration and divine intervention, will be discussed and placed into tension with ‘rupture’ narratives; the stories my interlocutors tell in order to ‘make sense’ of their conversions.

This thesis explores first generation Muslim immigrant womens acculturation experiences and strategies from a religious, cultural and gender perspective. It aims to increase our understanding of the diverse and confounding roles and expectations of their heritage culture and host Canadian culture. Qualitative interviews with eight married with children, English-speaking Muslim immigrant women who have lived in Canada for at least three years explored: (a) their overall experiences living in a Canadian Prairie city; (b) their experience transitioning from their role in the family in a traditional non-Western culture to their role in the family in an egalitarian Canadian culture; and (c) factors that hinder and facilitate their adaptation in Canada. Findings demonstrated that although womens acculturation experiences and strategies are unique and dynamic, all women expressed the interconnectivity and significance of God, community and family in their lives. Womens personal experiences and goals related to work, family, and community influence how and to what degree they negotiate and reconcile the diverse and confounding roles and expectations of their heritage and Canadian cultures. Their acculturation experiences are constantly evolving, and their adaptation in Canada is largely influenced by their daily experiences, including the supports they have and do not have both at home and in their local heritage and host communities. Women also face the central challenge of raising their children in a culture that promotes a set of values that compromises the transmission of their own core religious/cultural values. Thus, they employ strategies such as conscientiously modeling devotion to Islam through practice and teaching, restricting their childrens personal freedom and independence, and monitoring and limiting their childrens Canadian friendships, while increasing contact with their local heritage community. This research contributes to cross-cultural inquiry via a cultural comparison that established cultural aspects of womens traditional heritage cultures, which was subsequently compared to Canadian culture as a tool for gauging cultural discrepancies. Future research may explore the whole family unit through a longitudinal lens to facilitate both the adaptation and integration of immigrants from collectivistic cultures into Canadian culture, and improved policies and programs that mark Canada as a pluralistic and egalitarian culture.

Thesis--Agra University. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 361-368).

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The Kashmir dispute has led to two wars (1947-1948, 1965), serious military encounters (1999,2001) between India and Pakistan, as well as a militant and nonmilitant separatist movement seeking independence for Kashmir (1989- ). While this conflict has been subjected to sustained analysis by academics and journalists, Kashmir's centrality to the public culture ofIndia, explored here through a study of Hindi cinema, has received little to no attention in the considerable literature on the area. The articulations of Kashmir in Hindi cinema - as a paradise on earth, sacred site of Hinduism, home ofIndia's spiritual and syncretistic traditions, pivotal to the idea of an eternal Indian civilization - help to reveal the attachments that guide 'Indian' claims on Kashmir. This study addresses the question of how, why and in what ways Kashmir is presented as a 'special' region in Hindi cinema. In doing so it initiates a discussion on region and religion in Hindi cinema, scholarship on which has long prioritized the 'nation'. As India's only Muslim-majority regional state, divided between India and Pakistan, Kashmir became a symbol of Indian secularism, a fact that is often reiterated in political discourse, as well as in academic research on the Kashmir dispute. Paradoxically, this symbol of Indian secularism, it is argued, is a site for religious contestations in Hindi cinema. The synonymy between Indian and Hindu in Kashmir films rests on the disavowal of a 'Muslim' Kashmir, so as to allay a Hindu majoritarian anxiety about a Muslim majority region in post-partition India. Therefore, the abstract equality of secularism, and the neutrality of 'national culture' remain merely 'ideals' in India's dominant form of public culture, namely Hindi cinema. The representations of Kashmir in Hindi cinema make explicit the regional and religious contestations over the national and the secular, providing a far more diverse account of history, culture and politics in India than is commonly acknowledged by 'official' discourses, mainstream historiography, and nation-centred (film) scholarship.

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No description available.