“Covered, Not Bound”: Young Dawoodi Bohra Women’s Self-Representation and Agency through the Online Website Mighzal

Abstract

Mighzal, an online website managed by a team of young Bohra women from various parts of the world, is an online blog/space that is meant to “reflect the myriad dreams, concerns, and preoccupations of practicing Dawoodi Bohra women”. This paper will examine the various blogs, art, and pieces on Mighzal and the profile of its core team members, using digital ethnography and participant observation, to ask how young Dawoodi Bohra women are actively participating in the creation of their own discourses while negotiating and questioning discourses of gender and religious stereotyping that they encounter in their daily lives. How do these representations contribute to the creation of a unique form of agency? How have these spaces enabled them to assert their identities and distinct modes of dress? This paper also draws on the author’s own encounter with these online spaces, and the questions that have been posed here, as a practicing member of the community.