Five Leaves Publications

Book details

The Postcolonial Flâneuse gathers a selection of poems from Ramisha Rafique’s doctoral project, The Ontology of The Postcolonial Flâneuse: Decolonisation in British Muslim Women’s Writing. In this evocative collection, the speaker repositions the gaze: shifting from the Western lens traditionally cast upon British Muslim women to that of the British Muslim woman herself, observing and reimagining the Western city.

Through the figure of the postcolonial flâneuse, these poems navigate cityscapes marked by colonial legacies, offering lyrical meditations on race, gender, religion, and spatial belonging. They challenge the dominant model of flânerie by foregrounding cultural and spiritual consciousness, presenting walking not just as an aesthetic but as political resistance and a spiritual practice. The Postcolonial Flâneuse is a timely poetic intervention that reframes how we read bodies, cities, and the everyday encounters that bind them.

About the Author

Dr. Ramisha Rafique is a poet, academic, and founder of Essential Praxis Consulting. She holds a PhD from Nottingham Trent University, where her creative-critical research project titled The Ontology of The Postcolonial Flâneuse: Decolonisation in British Muslim Women's Writing, combined creative and critical practice to explore the presence of this literary figure in the works on female Muslim writers. Ramisha’s recent publications include contributions to The Palgrave Handbook of Gendered Islamophobia, The Journal of Postcolonial Writing, and Muslim Women's Popular Fiction. Ramisha’s poetry has featured in The Journal of Postcolonial Writing (2023) and on Cappo and Kong The Artisan’s LP CANON (2023). Across her practice, she is committed to amplifying underrepresented voices and reimagining how we engage with race, faith, and belonging in public and academic spaces.