Paper short abstract:

Using Dialogical Self Theory as an analytical tool, in this paper it will be demonstrated how in her Hajj memoir Standing Alone Asra Nomani merges and combines various moral discourses that inform her daily life to narratively construct her selfhood.

Paper long abstract:

Following Samuli Schielke (2015) and Sherine Hafez (2011), this paper analyses how the multifaceted needs and desires that result from the ways that people's everyday life is informed by various discourses simultaneously feature in the Hajj memoir Standing Alone (2006) by the journalist Asra Nomani. Nomani presents her pilgrimage to Mecca as a personal and spiritual quest to find answers to existential questions considering her commitments and various senses of belonging as an American Muslim woman with Indian roots. Against the background of her everyday experiences as being 'frowned upon' as a single mother by members of the Indian diaspora community she belongs to, in her Hajj memoir Nomani reclaims her religious heritage from those who use it as a tool for oppression. Stepping in the footsteps of Hajar, another single mother whose faith in and rescue by God is played out during the Hajj, Nomani finds a strong female Muslim role model to identify with. Having appropriated Islam as an empowering moral discourse, Nomani takes the extraordinary experience of the Hajj back home to her everyday life to become an activist in the various communities that she belongs to claim Muslim women's rights as equal citizens. Using Dialogical Self Theory as an analytical tool, it will be demonstrated how in her Hajj memoir Nomani merges and combines various moral discourses that inform her daily life to narratively construct her selfhood.