Fashion, performance and the politics of belonging among Muslim women in Cape Town
type: CreativeWork
description: This thesis explores how the hijab fashion market has emerged in Cape Town and how Capetonian Muslim women are appropriating hijab fashion as a means of redefining themselves as Muslim South Africans instead of ?Cape Malays?, the ethnic label given to Muslims in the Western Cape during the apartheid era. I argue that through self stylisation Cape Malay women are performatively rejecting the ethnicisation of Islam during apartheid. I show that ?Cape Malay? women are using hijab fashion to perform their ?Muslimness? in order to claim a positive and legitimate spot in the ?rainbow nation? as Muslims as a religious-cultural category, and not as ?Malays?, an ethnic category, while simultaneously claiming their belonging to the global umma (Muslim community)
abstract: This thesis explores how the hijab fashion market has emerged in Cape Town and how Capetonian Muslim women are appropriating hijab fashion as a means of redefining themselves as Muslim South Africans instead of ?Cape Malays?, the ethnic label given to Muslims in the Western Cape during the apartheid era. I argue that through self stylisation Cape Malay women are performatively rejecting the ethnicisation of Islam during apartheid. I show that ?Cape Malay? women are using hijab fashion to perform their ?Muslimness? in order to claim a positive and legitimate spot in the ?rainbow nation? as Muslims as a religious-cultural category, and not as ?Malays?, an ethnic category, while simultaneously claiming their belonging to the global umma (Muslim community)
author: Hendricks, Hibah
keywords: Muslim women, Cape Malay, Islamic wear, Hijab fashion, Self stylisation, Performance, Belonging, International Umma, Cape Town, South Africa
license: https://uwcscholar.uwc.ac.za/bitstreams/c76b7b9c-46c4-49ba-9f4a-3abdfe2a4a22/download
date published: 2013
date modified: 2026-07-24T06:00:52Z
provider: University of the Western Cape
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of the Western Cape