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Orientalism

Edward Said (1978) advanced the concept of Orientalism in 1978. It refers, generally, to the Western view of the East as a site of barbarism and backwardness. It is essential to understand how this idea signifies the distinction between the other and ourselves. Orientalism is a way of racializing the East that fuels the Western supremacy assumption, and it requires intervention. It is the result of the Western scholars’ personal biases, assumptions and stereotypes against Muslims. However, the East is not the only place looked down upon by the colonial gaze. Canada has employed explicit “exclusion and assimilation” strategies to dominate Indigenous Peoples, including through the reserve and residential school systems. In addition, Canada has implemented the sexist provisions of the Indian Act (1876) (Dilys, 2014) that robbed Indigenous women of their rights to land and community. Eventually, these systems and policies have aimed to eradicate Indigenous peoples culturally, politically, and legally by distinguishing them from the rest of Canadian society (Coulthard, 2014). Hence, Canadian Indigenous people have often been looked down upon due to the assumptions and the stereotypes against them.
Orientalism is a hegemonic discourse for Said, questioning the essentialist assumptions of Western superiority over Eastern cultures. Said’s concept of Orientalism questions the Western excuse for the oppression and domination of the East. This understanding of Orientalism has helped critics from Eastern nations question the oppression of the powerful Western world. In fact, being “Orientalist” is as questionable as being racist, sexist or homophobic. With Orientalism, Said (1978) has opened a discussion about how the Arab-Islamic world is imagined by the West and has challenged its assumptions. However, what is important to understand for this project is the implication of Orientalism regarding the lives and experiences of Muslim immigrant women. If Orientalism is a part of a generalized Western consciousness, what systemic barriers does it produce for Muslim immigrant women?
Orientalism has had a wide influence on the lives of Muslim immigrant women as they continuously are represented as backward and suppressed (Said, 1978). The Western misunderstandings and distortions of Islam and its women, from the earliest times, have been supported by a series of myths and legends (Macfie, 2014). The paintings of the Orientalist genre portray Muslim women as victims of male exploitation (Macfie, 2014). Muslim women have been portrayed mainstream media as troubled by their patriarchal societies in the Islamic religion, and as people who need to be rescued from such an oppressive society (Abubakar, Yaapar, & Muhammad, 2019). The understanding of Orientalism has helped Eastern nations to question the ideology and oppression of powerful Western thinking by challenging their stereotypes and assumptions.

Orientalism: Welcome
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