Shaping Eyebrows and Moral Selves: Considering Islamic Discourse, Gender, and Ethnicity within the Muslim Pakistani Community of Sheffield (UK)

Abstract

Abstract In the past five to ten years, the popularity of eyebrow beautification (as a practice and a profession) has come under close scrutiny amongst the Muslim Pakistani community in Sheffield (UK) due to the apparent incompatibility of eyebrow modification with revivalist interpretations of Islamic doctrine. In this article I consider how the seemingly insignificant act of shaping the brow incites complex discussions regarding Islamic permissibility, being a ‘good girl’ within the Pakistani community and what it means to be a ‘good person’. Analysing how such moral subjectivities are shaped by local, raced and classed articulations of femininity, the article contributes to the scholarly debates on both beauty work and young Muslim British-Pakistani women’s complex identifications.