Publication Date
Spring 2025
Abstract
This paper explores how hip hop culture functions as a liberating theological and political force for young Tunisian women navigating questions of identity, faith, and belonging. Situated at the intersection of post-revolutionary Tunisia, gender politics, and global hip hop culture, this study argues that hip hop offers a critical space where young women resist traditional religious structures and patriarchal norms while forging new modes of spiritual and political expression. Drawing on original interviews, survey data, and theological frameworks such as liberation theology, Marxist critique, and process thought, the paper presents hip hop as both an aesthetic and ethical practice that allows for the reinterpretation of doctrine and the reclamation of selfhood.
The analysis begins by tracing hip hop’s global trajectory from its origins in the Bronx to its localization in Tunisia, highlighting its consistent function as a tool of rebellion and community-building. It then develops a theological reading of hip hop, framing it as a grassroots form of liberation theology that contests doctrinal authority while offering alternative forms of spiritual authorship. Attention is given to how gender mediates these dynamics: female youth face a unique hermeneutical injustice, constrained by the gendered application of religion, economic precarity, and cultural invisibility.
This paper seeks to understand Tunisia’s religious and linguistic landscape shaped by its moderate Islamic tradition, colonial past, and multilingual reality, all of which add further complexity. The paper evaluates the symbolic weight of Arabic, French, English, and Tunsi in hip hop expression, showing how language becomes both a site of resistance and a battleground for identity construction. Ultimately, the paper argues that hip hop enables young Tunisian women to deconstruct inherited doctrines and participate in a living, dynamic theology that speaks from their social margins but aspires toward broader justice and inclusion.
Disciplines
Arts and Humanities | Social and Behavioral Sciences
Recommended Citation
Hicks, Brandon, "Setting the scene: Young Tunisian Women, Hip-Hop Liberation Theologies, and the Issue of Identities" (2025). Tunisia and Italy: Politics and Religious Integration in the Mediterranean. 3.
https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/tnc3/3