Teaching Islam, Gender, and Women through Multimedia Strategies and Challenges

The figure of Kamala Khan as Ms Marvel across two media—graphic novel and Disney streaming series—provides a novel means of teaching topics related to Islam, gender, and women.There has been a rich outpouring of interpretation and scholarship around the publications of the early graphic novels.However, there has been less discussion of the ways in which representation of the superheroine has changed in subsequent media.An analysis of the central character of Kamala Khan with reference to the use of political and religious history in identity formation is followed by an exploration of how themes of immigration and assimilation, Muslim American identity and values, and narrative lines that explicate a Muslim religious identity have changed in the move from graphic novel to mini-series. A gendered analysis points to differences in physical representation, a devolution in personal agency, and a move of focus from religious identity in the graphic novels to ethnic identity in the Disney series.  

Since 2018, the Pakistan Aurat March has been a site of intense controversy, garnering the critique of a number of religious organizations in the country. In this proposal, I use the slogans used by protestors at this annual march as a pedagogical tool to help students think about broader themes pertaining to Islam and gender. Specifically, I aim to teach students about the politics/challenges surrounding women’s movements in Muslim majority countries, the complicated ways in which Muslim women engage with feminism, and the types of arguments religious groups use against women’s movements.

Teaching Islam, sex, and gender in courses that examine Judaism, Christianity, and Islam presents distinctive pedagogical challenges, especially when students encounter the academic study of religion for the first time. This presentation introduces a framework for engaging questions of sex, gender, authority, and interpretation across Abrahamic traditions through three strategies: religious deidentification, comparative textual analysis, and pedagogies of play. Students temporarily bracket confessional commitments, analyze sacred texts across traditions, and experiment with interpretive perspectives through structured activities such as Power Bingo, debate simulations, and role-play exercises. Multimedia resources (including video, visual art, and digital texts) provide accessible entry points into contested topics, while an interactive syllabus helps students trace recurring themes across traditions. Together, these approaches cultivate intellectual curiosity, interpretive humility, and collaborative dialogue when teaching Islam, sex, and gender in interreligious classrooms.

Our Males and Females (dir. Ahmad Alyaseer, 2023) is a short film (11 minutes), filmed in Jordan, and packs a complicated, moving, and timely storyline into its economical run time. The simplest film summary could be: A mother and father have received their deceased daughter from an unidentified “abroad,” and aim to wash her for a proper Muslim burial. However, this would miss the balance between causality and choices, surprises, stripped down scenery, and intensity that this story contains. It is quickly revealed that the child is a transgender young woman who has undergone breast augmentation. The father remains committed to affirming his son’s maleness, while the mother at first uses male pronouns in her recitation of the janazah (funerary) prayer, but elegantly and seamless adjusts to identifying her daughter as such by the end of this gripping and emotional presentation.