Exploring South African Girlhoods: The Self-Identifications of Young Muslim Female Learners in Post-Apartheid South African High Schools

Abstract

This paper explores the theme of South African girlhoods1 within the context of post-apartheid schooling environments and from the perspective of young Muslim female learners. Presented chiefly as an exploratory endeavour within the field of Islamic feminist scholarship in South Africa, this paper navigates the relatively uncharted terrain of girlhood studies and asks the following questions: How do present-day young Muslim girls in South Africa self-identify with the labels “South African”, “Muslim”, “female”, and “learner”? And what does democracy mean to, and for, Muslim girlhoods in South Africa? Drawing on data gathered for a pilot study conducted in 2010 with a group of young Muslim female learners from two girls’ high schools in Cape Town, I present the voices of young South African Muslim girls as a reflection of some of the complexities and diversities of South African girlhoods.2 The study also considers how different post-apartheid schooling environments may shape the gendered experiences of Muslim girls in South Africa.