| Summary: | "The reality for marginalized Muslim girls in the city of Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) in India is far more complex than the one that is often constructed during discussions that view the lives of Muslim girls through a lens of repression and poverty within the patriarchal Islamic community. Based on extensive, original research, this book portrays a different and an under-represented perspective of young Muslim girls in the bustees (shanty towns) of Kolkata. Through a series of personal narratives, photos and artwork, it demonstrates that in spite of the dominant discourse surrounding their lives, the consumption and behaviour patterns of young women in these bustees challenge the monolithic representations of what it means to be a Muslim girl in Indian society. It explores the ways in which the young Muslim women live, manipulate, and resist the stereotypes of Islamic femininity by carefully negotiating the risks and performing multiple identities inspired by modernity, globalization and, most of all, Bollywood culture. "--
"This book, based on extensive, original research, details the changing lives of youth living in slum communities (bustees) in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta). Using young people's own photos, art and narratives, the book explores how Muslim girls and young women are contributing to, and impacted by, changing youth culture in India. We are invited into the risky world of mixed-sex dance taking place in clandestine spaces in the slums. We join young people on their journeys to find premarital romance and witness their strategic and savvy risk taking when participating in transgressive aspects of consumer culture. The book reveals how social changes in India, including greater education and employment opportunities, as well as powerful middle class Muslim reform discourses, are impacting youth the very local level. More than just fantasy we see that Bollywood is an important role model which young people consult. By carefully negotiating risks and performing multiple identities inspired by modernity, globalization and, most of all, Bollywood culture, young people actively participate in a changing India and disrupt dominant discourses about slum youth as poor victims who are excluded from social change"--
|
|---|
