Aneesah Hoosain

Fellow: Department of Anthropology, Honours

My name is Aneesah Hoosain and I am currently an Honours student in the Anthropology department at the University of the Western Cape.

My honours research is looking at how people define personhood and aim to achieve it. I aim to do this by looking at how young Muslim women from working class backgrounds use marriage as a vehicle for achieving personhood and recognition as fully fledged adults in their communities. By questioning motivations and women’s narratives, this research attempts to explore which kind of personhood and womanhood is achieved through the institution of marriage. This takes into account how personhood is defined in both a South African context as well as within the global Muslim identity.