Solidarity and Ethics of Care

Solidarity and Ethics of Care: (My) Muslim Feminist Reflections on Sexual Violence and on Palestine

This talk brings together recent research experiences focused on survivor-centered advocacy efforts against sexual violence in Muslim communities with reflections on the shifting parameters of Palestine solidarity work since October 2023. It explores conditions for and obstacles to feminist solidarity and considers the parallel and intersecting challenges of silence/silencing, of the demand for perfect victims, and a focus on the perpetrators of violence. Centered on the survivor-focused and intersectional work of HEART to Grow, a US Muslim advocacy organization, it presents the organization’s commitment to an ethic of care as a model for feminist solidarity work.

Dr. Juliane Hammer is professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She specializes in the study of gender and sexuality in Muslim societies and communities, race and gender in US Muslim communities, as well as contemporary Muslim thought, activism and practice, and Sufism. She is the author of three monographs: Peaceful Families: American Muslim Efforts against Domestic Violence (Princeton, 2019); American Muslim Women, Religious Authority, and Activism: More Than a Prayer (Austin, TX, 2012), and Palestinians Born in Exile: Diaspora and the Search for a Homeland (Austin, TX, 2005). She is also the co-editor of A Jihad for Justice: The Work and Life of Amina Wadud (with Kecia Ali and Laury Silvers, 2012); the Cambridge Companion to American Islam (with Omid Safi, 2013), and Muslim Women and Gender Justice: Concepts, Sources, and Histories (with Dina El Omari and Mouhannad Khorchide, 2020). She is currently working on several projects related to Muslim women’s activism and knowledge production, sexual norms and practice in US Muslim communities, patriarchal Islam, and efforts to end gender-based violence in Muslim communities.

*See the event poster: 2024-02-09-Solidarity-Ethics_Hammer.pdf