Feminist Muslim Activists in Postdigital Spaces

This presentation focuses on feminist Muslim perspectives by examining the works of artists, activists and researchers who employ blended visual styles and the hybridity of postdigital spaces. Through their endeavors, they deconstruct prevalent binaries associated with Muslim women in postmigrant contexts. Drawing on ethnographic and co-curatorial forms of knowledge production, the focus is on selected works that relate to the Muslim*Present curatorial project in Cologne, in 2023.
This talk highlights how, within the hybrid postdigital spheres, Muslim women carve out their own inclusive domains. In doing so, they creatively assert agency and visibility while simultaneously distancing themselves from certain one-sided public discourses. These postdigital artistic and activist practices and projects extend beyond simply creating a space of expression or “talking back.” Female Muslim artists and activists engage with tactics of hybridity, disidentification, and ambiguation to navigate within ‘Western’ cultural spaces, including social media posts, museums and galleries, and public interventions.Through these strategies, they aim to destabilize “White” feminist notions of the liberal, agentive subject and offer a space of action for Muslim perspectives beyond the dominant discourses on Islam in postmigrant societies.