Gendered racialization and the Muslim identity : the difference that ‘difference’ makes for Muslim women complainants in Canadian sexual assault cases
Publisher
University of British Columbia
Date Issued
2024
Document Type
Thesis
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy - PhD
Program
Law
Description
This dissertation investigates how gender and the racialization of the Muslim identity intersect in sexual assault cases involving Muslim women complainants in Canada. Literature on sexual assault reforms in Canada over the past decades reveals the challenges and prejudicial treatment of women complainants, including the complex ways in which intersections, such as gender and race, impact the perception of women of colour complainants in sexual assault cases. Using the concept of racialization, a process that enacts racial meaning onto populations, including onto the religious identity of Muslims and its intersection with gender, allows for a better understanding into the discriminatory treatment and targeting of Muslim women in Canada. Recognizing the particular challenges Muslim women encounter, this dissertation presents a critical examination of relevant Canadian sexual assault cases between 1983 and 2022 and expert interviews with frontline support workers to better understand the systemic and layered challenges Muslim women complainants face as sexual assault complainants. This dissertation engages with critical race feminist perspectives and feminist legal theory, as a theoretical framework, to examine the characterizations and portrayals of Muslim women complainants in Canadian sexual assault cases. The inclusion of interviews with frontline support workers that attest to the challenges Muslim women survivors and survivors overall face in the process of reporting their experiences of sexual violence adds crucial insights into the failures of the criminal justice system towards sexual assault complainants at large. As the first study examining the portrayals and experiences of Muslim women complainants in sexual assault cases in Canada, this dissertation demonstrates the permeation of gendered and racialized stereotypes and myths, including through the use of ‘cultural context’ evidence and ‘cultural considerations’, in sexual assault cases involving Muslim women and girls. This dissertation contributes to a better understanding of how the politicization and perceptions of Muslim women in Canada impact their ability to access justice through criminal courts as sexual assault complainants and to access the services they need as survivors.
Date Available
2024-10-10
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
DOI
10.14288/1.0445534
Affiliation
Law, Peter A. Allard School of