Publications

Publication details [#63198]

Khazaal, Natalie. 2017. The cultural politics of religious defiance in Islam: how pseudonyms and media can destigmatize. Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies 14 (3) : 271–287.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English
Place, Publisher
Routledge

Annotation

Religious defiance that ends in publicly leaving religion (apostasy) is an enormous taboo in Arab communities despite the recent surge in apostates’ numbers. Drawing from inquiry on stigma, apostasy, authorship, and critical studies, this paper examines how a transnational Arab community, which emerges in the crossfire among democratizing politics of self-expression, regulation of public identity by digital technologies, and vast opposition networks, employs digital technologies and the politics of naming to destigmatize its identity. Expanding the literatures of stigma and apostasy to ex-Muslims, it is concluded that this case discloses religious and nonreligious Arabs’ common struggle against violence and the need for structural changes to protect digital technologies’ emancipatory potential.