Call for abstracts for edited volume

Sexual Violence in Muslim Communities:

Towards Awareness and Accountability

Samah Choudhury and Juliane Hammer 

Sexual abuse is ubiquitous in our societies and communities, and religious communities are no exception. Surrounded by silence, victims and survivors live among us, while perpetrators are not held accountable or prevented from committing further abuse. Inspired by the work of the Religion and Abuse Project (funded by the Henry Luce Foundation), our goal is to put together a collection of essays that focuses on sexual abuse in Muslim minority contexts in which anti-Muslim hostility and racism play a central role in shaping and informing Muslim conversations on gender and sexuality. These include North America, Europe, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, but we are open to other locations where Muslims constitute minoritized communities as well.  

The proposed volume is intended to function as a source for communities, academics, advocates, and service providers, bringing together the ideas, research, and resources of authors in and beyond academia.

We seek essays that raise awareness of sexual abuse in Muslim communities, analyze or offer support to victims and survivors, and present ideas and projects aimed at holding perpetrators accountable. We are particularly interested in public-facing, interdisciplinary, transnational, and intersectional approaches to the question of Muslims and sexual abuse.

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

• What do we know about sexual abuse in Muslim communities?
• Challenges to addressing sexual violence in communal settings
• Sexual violence as a public health crisis
• Religious resources for addressing sexual abuse
• Religion as a roadblock to addressing sexual violence

We welcome submissions from community organizers and activists, professors, adjunct or contingent faculty, independent scholars, post-docs, and graduate students working in a variety of fields, including religious studies, history, literature, critical ethnic studies, women’s and gender studies, and others in the humanities and beyond.

Please submit 250-word abstracts and a short bio (max. 150 words) to Juliane Hammer (Dept. of Religious Studies, UNC Chapel Hill) at shemsipasha@gmail.com and to Samah Choudhury (Dept. of Philosophy and Religion, Ithaca College) at schoudhury@ithaca.edu no later than May 31, 2023.

Invitations to contribute an essay to the volume will be sent out by June 30, 2023. We are planning to convene a zoom-based workshop for confirmed contributors to the volume in October 2023. Finalized essays of approximately 4,000 words will be due by March 30, 2024.

With support from the Henry Luce Foundation-funded Religion and Sexual Abuse Project, we will be able to offer contributors a small honorarium for their chapter upon submission by the March 30, 2024 deadline. The volume will be produced and available through a university-affiliated open access repository.