Encountering the stranger at the gate: towards a feminist-postcolonial theology of hospitality

This paper asks: Who is the stranger? Who defines this and for whom? How
do we encounter the stranger? I begin by tracing Malaysia’s treatment of
refugees, as paradigmatic of the marginalised, in the time of coronavirus
when the Government of Malaysia had imposed a partial lockdown from
March to September 2020. A cursory scoping of headlines during this
period not only answers those questions but is also revelatory of the shifts
in mind-sets and treatment of refugees in Malaysia; one from civility to
hostility. I contrast that with my personal encounter with refugee female
leaders. And I offer a theology of hospitality from a feminist-postcolonial
lens borne from this encounter of difference, mutuality and reciprocity.