Public Pedagogy of Hijabi Girlhood

Abstract

Abstract I use the narrative method, The Listening Guide, to investigate Hijabi girlhood on YouTube through the girl-created trend #MyHijabStory that emerged in response to public misunderstanding of Hijab. The voice analysis examines how gendered subjectivities of Hijabi girlhood are constructed among narratives of piety, culture, fashion, community, and marginalization. I identified three voices: the convicted voice; the conflicted voice; and the critical voice. The first two involve looking inward and realizing multifaceted stories of coming to Hijab while the third involves looking outward to trouble the social world in which Hijabi girlhood is constituted through dominant discourses. I illustrate that #MyHijabStory vlogs are forms of narrative resistance by girls who seek to produce a public pedagogy of Hijab that is complex and embodied.