Confronting my positionality
How does the reader’s background shape their interpretation of knowledge?
What biases do we bring when engaging with unfamiliar epistemologies?
Browsing through LCC library’s Special Collection
As I flipped through Hafiz from the Middle Eastern special collection at the LCC Library, I paused at an author’s notes on Quran schools in Istanbul. She described young girls who memorised the Quran, becoming Hafiz—“protectors through memorisation.” Yet, she called them illiterate. This unsettled me. These girls could recite an entire religious text, reading fluently at high speed.
What literacy standards were being applied here?
Who decides what counts as knowledge?
My own background shaped my reaction
I grew up in Malappuram, Kerala, a Muslim-majority district, but in a Hindu family. My formal education was at MES Central School, run by a Muslim management board. My Muslim friends attended ‘Madrasa’ after school, learning to read and understand the Quran. I was familiar with these spaces, yet my childhood was filled with stories that framed ‘Madrasa’ education negatively.
Those biases surfaced as I examined the collection. I questioned whether the girls in the photographs were happy, whether they had any agency in their learning and education. Were these my own thoughts, or echoes of narratives I had inherited?