Classing religion, resourcing women: Muslim women negotiating space for action

Abstract

Approaching Islam as a discursive terrain, this article challenges the tacit understanding of Islam as a repressor in young women’s lives and argues that well-educated, young female Muslims in Denmark use a discursive distinction between “real” Islam and “misguided” ethno-cultural traditions to challenge restrictive gender norms. Inspired by research on everyday lived religion and lived Islam, we show how the women—backed by their middle-class identity formations—posit a culture/religion dichotomy turning the discursive terrain of Islam into a resource in intergenerational discussions with their own families and wider communities. Addressing a gap in research literature on European Muslims, the article illustrates how middle-class formations play a significant part in the women’s responses to conventional authorities as the women apply Islamic sources in negotiations of gender boundaries.

Pragmatic, pious and pissed off: young Muslim girls managing conflicting sexual norms and social control

“…The same line of argument has been found in other studies among minority Muslim women in Europe (DeHanas 2013;C. Jacobsen 2011;Liebmann and Galal 2020;Ryan 2014) where young Muslim women position themselves either against what they consider misinterpretations (or even misuse) of Islam by the older generations, or in opposition to the un-Islamic values of the majority. The pious position can, at first sight, appear as a form of identity work based on the rejection of the generalised other.…”

Dilemmas of belonging: Young Muslim women in the Danish youth alcohol culture

“…For instance, other researchers have found dilemmas that stem from the multiple complicities in which young Muslims are engaged, such as dividing their loyalty between their families, their religion and the society of which they are a part ( Suhr, 2015 ). In addition, some dilemmas spring from young Muslims women’s attempts to challenge restrictive gender norms, through a discursive distinction between ‘real’ Islam and ‘misguided’ ethno-cultural traditions ( Liebmann & Galal, 2020 ).…”

“Are You God? Damn Your Family!”: The Islam–Gender Nexus in Right-Wing Populism and the New Generation of Muslim Feminist Activism in Turkey

“…Feminist studies note that in the current era, the distinction between patriarchal interpretations of Islam and "real Islam" understood as an essentially gender-equal religion that empowers women is quite widespread among young, well-educated, professional Muslim women both in Muslim majority and Muslim minority contexts ( van Es 2016;Liebmann and Galal 2020). However, the rhetoric of "real Islam" in the remark above is different than the tactic of distinguishing an essentially good religion from patriarchal culture.…”