THE REPRESENTATION OF MUSLIM WOMEN IN THE POST-9/11 CULTURAL PRODUCTS

Since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centers on September 11, 2001 a great attention has been paid to the Muslim World.In my thesis I have demonstrated that the representations of Muslim women in some post-9/11 cultural products differ from the conventional image of the Muslim woman as victim, oppress. The first part of my thesis concerns reading the discourse behind the myth of the Muslim woman . The second part deals with the analysis of these cultural products. Relying on Foucauldian framework which indicates where there is power there is resistance , I have shown that the gendered representations of the 9/11 attacks and the depiction of Afghan women have entailed the myth of the Muslim woman to be questioned in the West. In this sense, the post-9/11 cultural products namely Yasmin, Little Mosque on the Prairie and Nazrah can be seen as the pioneers which deconstruct the Orientalist depiction of the Muslim woman who is in need of rescue.