{"id":17453,"date":"2018-05-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-05-07T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/2018\/05\/08\/tudung-girls-unveiling-muslim-womens-identity-in-singapore\/"},"modified":"2021-02-08T15:49:30","modified_gmt":"2021-02-08T07:49:30","slug":"tudung-girls-unveiling-muslim-womens-identity-in-singapore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/2018\/05\/08\/tudung-girls-unveiling-muslim-womens-identity-in-singapore\/","title":{"rendered":"Tudung Girls: Unveiling Muslim Women&#8217;s Identity in Singapore"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"\" data-block=\"true\" data-editor=\"602m2\" data-offset-key=\"dho2r-0-0\">\n<div data-offset-key=\"dho2r-0-0\">\n<figure id=\"attachment_17454\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17454\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17454\" src=\"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/08\/malay.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"643\" srcset=\"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/08\/malay.jpg 960w, https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/08\/malay-300x201.jpg 300w, https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/08\/malay-768x514.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-17454\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">&#8220;Hari Raya in the Heartland&#8221; by Tow Mei Zheng Isabelle from SRN&#8217;s SG Photobank<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"_1mf _1mj\" data-offset-key=\"dho2r-0-0\"><span data-offset-key=\"dho2r-0-0\">The <em>tudung<\/em>, a piece of cloth worn over women\u2019s heads, can be seen as a signifier of Malay Muslim women identity. Wearing <em>tudung<\/em> has been a way of life for Malay Muslim women. However, when Dr Suriani Suratman (Senior Lecturer, Department of Malay Studies) discovered that a few Malay female students in her class had stopped wearing it, it triggered her curiosity as to what might have prompted their decision and the kinds of experiences they would have gone through in removing it.<\/span><\/div>\n<div data-offset-key=\"dho2r-0-0\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"_1mf _1mj\" data-offset-key=\"dho2r-0-0\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px\">Dr Suratman conducted a study with five Malay Muslim women to explore how these women situate the <\/span><em style=\"font-size: 16px\">tudung<\/em><span style=\"font-size: 16px\"> in their everyday lives as they search for a distinctive self. The research revealed that although these five women identify <\/span><em style=\"font-size: 16px\">tudung<\/em><span style=\"font-size: 16px\"> as their identity of being Malay Muslim women, they find <\/span><em style=\"font-size: 16px\">tudung<\/em><span style=\"font-size: 16px\"> worn over the head &#8220;inhibiting&#8221;.<\/span><\/div>\n<div data-offset-key=\"dho2r-0-0\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"_1mf _1mj\" data-offset-key=\"dho2r-0-0\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px\">Dr Suratman also argues that the experiences of the women in the study show that expressions of Malay Muslim identity in Singapore are not necessarily shared by all members of the ethnic community. The social positioning of the informants in the study as women has generated contexts where these women faced conflicts and chose to assert their self-identity rather than their collective Malay Muslim identity. A collective identity is vulnerable. No matter how strong a marker of identity the <\/span><em style=\"font-size: 16px\">tudung<\/em><span style=\"font-size: 16px\"> has assumed over the years, there will always be categories of women within the collective who have contrary views and interests. What is not certain is whether the foundation of Malayness hinged upon an Islamic identity is being loosened in Singapore.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"\" data-block=\"true\" data-editor=\"602m2\" data-offset-key=\"4mi50-0-0\">\n<div class=\"_1mf _1mj\" data-offset-key=\"4mi50-0-0\"><span data-offset-key=\"4mi50-0-0\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"\" data-block=\"true\" data-editor=\"602m2\" data-offset-key=\"1hrb9-0-0\">\n<div class=\"_1mf _1mj\" data-offset-key=\"1hrb9-0-0\"><span data-offset-key=\"1hrb9-0-0\">Dr Suratman&#8217;s research was published in 2011 in <em>Melayu: The Politics, Poetics and Paradoxes of Malayness<\/em> (NUS Press), edited by A\/P Maznah Mohamad (NUS Southeast Asian Studies and Malay Studies) and A\/P Syed Muhd Khairudin Aljunied (NUS Malay Studies), which is available <a href=\"https:\/\/nuspress.nus.edu.sg\/products\/melayu\">here<\/a>.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"\" data-block=\"true\" data-editor=\"602m2\" data-offset-key=\"3ucmr-0-0\">\n<div data-offset-key=\"3ucmr-0-0\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"_1mf _1mj\" data-offset-key=\"3ucmr-0-0\"><span data-offset-key=\"3ucmr-0-0\">Learn more about the study <a href=\"https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/publication\/291918161_Tudung_girls_Unveiling_Muslim_women's_identity_in_Singapore\">here<\/a>.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The tudung, a piece of cloth worn over women\u2019s heads, can be seen as a signifier of Malay Muslim women identity. Wearing tudung has been a way of life for Malay Muslim women. However, when Dr Suriani Suratman (Senior Lecturer, Department of Malay Studies) discovered that a few Malay female students in her class had [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":247,"featured_media":17454,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4529],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/247"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17453"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28230,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17453\/revisions\/28230"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}