PhD Student in Rhetoric and Writing, Dania Ammar recently published a chapter discussing feminist rhetoric in the middle east titled, “Leaving a Home that Won’t Leave Her: A Mētic Understanding of Ex-Muslim Women’s Experiences.”
The following is the abstract for the chapter:
Through a framework of mētis—i.e., embodied knowledge often taking the form of rhetorical cunning, shape-shifting, and border-crossing, as well as intuitive and emotion-informed intelligence—the chapter aims to help us understand the online rhetorical practices of Ex-Muslim women from postcolonial backgrounds. Informed by the author’s own experiences, the analysis illuminates how these women navigate a rhetorical situation constructed not only by the traditions of classical Islam but also by the priorities of Western colonialism and both conservative and progressive Western narratives. In either context, the emotional and rhetorical labor that these women experience reflects systems of privilege and hegemony. This chapter eschews the binary between the East and West, calling instead for mētis-informed rhetorical listening that acknowledges the tragedy and trauma alongside the survival and resistance of Ex-Muslim women. It invites us to consider an epistemological stance that can honor Islamic cultures without silencing the voices of the women who have left these cultures behind.