We can't all be the good Muslim hero: Intersubjective obstructions in writing Arab-Australian Muslim experience

This thesis investigates how postcolonial pressures on the Arab-Australian Muslim identity have led to the presentation of a too-unified front in Arab-Australian storytelling. By interviewing Egyptian Muslim women living in Brisbane, and as one myself, I identify what I call intersubjective obstructions, which provide opportunities for autoethnographic interrogation. I examine how Yassmin Abdel-Magied, through her memoir Yassmin’s Story, renders a Brisbane-based Arab-Australian Muslim hybrid identity. I find that post-colonial pressures can force the creation of the Good Muslim Hero narrative. Through my creative practice, I discover how I may resist or respond to those pressures in my memoir, Muddy People.