writing_womans_lives_symposium_paper_book_v2

women in London understand and visually represent their everyday lives.
Findings and Critical Discussion
The analysis of the visual and textual data curated through this study reveals three important
findings discussed below:
1. The participants represent their everyday lives and challenges by telling visual stories about
three main topics: faith, their social lives, and identity.
2. The participants understand their local challenges through the frameworks of neededempowerment
and needed‐normalcy in London.
3. The platform for discussion is based on the shared experiences with the researcher as well as
our differences.
Visual Stories of Everyday Lives and Challenges
In being asked to take photographs of their everyday lives, the seven participants of this study
were not given details or specific requirements except a minimum (1) and maximum (5) number of
photos per day that represent aspects of their daily lives. This elicited photographs which represent
what the participants considered important aspects of their everyday lives. In seeing their
photographs again at the interviews, the participants were able to feel a sense of ownership and full
participation in the study. Additionally, while the overall topics were similar across the cases, there
was a great variety of individual stories told. The topics that will be analyzed here to display the
importance of individuality will be: faith, their social lives, and identity.
The first type of visual stories the participants told were of faith and the everyday: discussions on
halal food, finding prayer space, and on dating and finding Mr Right. One participant in particular,
Alex, explained how her daily hijab choices were a reflection of who she was that day. For the
duration of the photo taking portion of the project, she took multiple photos from the same angle of
the different hijab she wore that day explaining, “I just realized that it's actually a major part of who I
am and I do decide which hijab I wear depending on my mood and on the weather and how I feel and
what I’m doing and so it does actually reflect what's actually going on inside me.” The familiar
language lexicon used during this discussion with the participants meant that we were able to leap
past the definitions and get right into the personal experiences and stories.
Stories on their social lives and the everyday came next. The wide range of social activities were
as to be expected from any young person living in one of the largest cities in the world: stories about
attending American film cast interviews and comparing cultures, spending time with likeminded and
inspiring women, and sports and adventure. When Nancy came to tell the story of a photo she
submitted of her at pole dancing class, she emphasized the need to be open minded, “I wanted to try
something a little bit different, apart from just the gym [...] if you’re not fit and healthy now, imagine
where you’re gonna be in 20, 30 years time, you know what I mean right?”
Finally, the participants’ visual stories looked at identity and the everyday. While some
participants discussed stories of how they see themselves from different perspectives, such as
through their various non‐British cultural heritages, and through their various political and social
activism, one participant in particular confided in me the pressure she was feeling to fit into a
cultural identity she did not belong to. Emily, an American convert to Islam who lives in London,
explained, “I did not sign up to deal with the issues of the Pakistani immigrant community [...] I had
gotten myself so warped into this Asian immigrant mentality, which I’m not!” The strong South Asian
Muslim identity in London was simply overwhelming her relatively new sense of Islamic identity
which she was attempting to forge for herself.
The use of visual images provided a common point of reference that we were both able to use to
build a bridge between our different cultural understandings and frameworks. Additionally, the
participants all reflected after the interviews that they were pleasantly surprised at the ease of the
visual method asked of them and that it was generally a fun research project. Perhaps this study has
displayed the usefulness of this novel visual approach with this specific demographic. As each
participant shared her stories in a different manner, they expressed that individuality, not
homogeneity, is important to give us a richer understanding of the everyday lives of young Muslim
women living in London.
Stories of Local Challenges
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