Seminar – Women’s Conversion to Islam and the Politics of Belonging
Research Seminar Women’s Conversion to Islam and the Politics of Belonging
Research Group Globalizing Culture and the Quest for Belonging Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research
Date: March 18th 2011
Venue: the Amsterdam Museum, Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 357
Time: 13:00-17:00
Women’s conversion to Islam is a hot topic. Within a political context that perceives both Islam and women as important boundary markers between ‘us’ and ‘them’ the female convert is presented as the ultimate other. Often women’s involvement in religious movements is poorly understood. In this seminar the participants explore new developments in the field of the study of conversion and focus on how women themselves are active agents in constructing a coherent self, a gendered Muslim identity and in creating sense of belonging while mainting a relationship with non-Muslims.
Abstracts
Revisiting Conversion Theories by Iman Lechkar
This presentation focuses on new developments in the field of conversion. While early studies on conversion were mostly pre-occupied with models that attempted to capture the nature of conversion (often consigning converts into categories), the anthropology of conversion has approached the conversion process from a different angle. The performative turn (cf. Coleman 2003) is a very important shift in understanding converts. Whereas the non-convert is the subject, that is he/she is normal and is referred to as the agent, the convert is seen as the divided subject or the person in crisis, often reduced to “the manipulated subject” in a variety of analyses. This presentation first sketches this state of affairs, and then critically discusses these normative views of the self, by retrieving the selfhood of the convert and revisiting the “self-fashioning” paradigm. Although converts often speak of “coming home”, I will also show how they are constantly involved in the process of creating this home – to varying degrees of success.
Iman Lechkar is an anthropology PhD student of KULeuven working on conversion to and within Islam in a Belgian and globalized context.
Redefining Feminine Identities through Islam. The Experience of Romanian Women by Daniela Stoica
Although Islam is a minority religion in Romania, grounded in the historical presence of Muslims in the South-Eastern part of the territory, Islam is no longer limited to specific ethnic populations. After the fall of the communist regime, the women who became Muslims as an answer to a spiritual quest, have been contributing to the articulation of a new Muslim identity in the Romanian context. The in-depth biographic interviews conducted in Cluj-Napoca (Transylvania, Romania) with women Muslim converts provide a significant series of micro-narratives. These are revealing the particular discursive mechanisms employed in articulating a new gendered Muslim identity, with reference to religious background (Christianity), social and family relations, as well as to personal transformations in matter of daily life routine.
Daniela Stoica is a Sociology PhD student of Babes-Bolyai University (Cluj-Napoca, Romania), working on a research concerning the feminine experience of conversion to Islam in the Romanian context. She is currently a visiting student of Babylon, Center for Studies of the Multicultural Society (Tilburg University), continuing her project from a comparative perspective, regarding the conversion experience of Romanian and Dutch women.
Sisters in Islam: Women’s Conversion and the Concept of Sisterhood by Vanessa Vroon-Najem
Conversion to Islam is a controversial choice for women in the Netherlands. Learning about Islam, building their new identity as Muslimas, obtaining a notion of belonging among Muslims, and maintaining relationships with their non-Muslim families, is a challenge for many of them. To help in this process, there are several support groups who organize women only lectures and workshops, and create women only websites to offer education and online support. These women only activities are, mostly, framed within the concept of sisterhood. Especially converted women seem to take the lead in setting up these kind of support groups. Together with born Muslimas who want to learn more about Islam and are interested in Dutch language activities, they form multi-ethnic Islamic sistergroups. The role and meaning of the concept of sisterhood, in the context of Dutch women’s conversion to Islam, will be the focal point in this presentation.
Vanessa Vroon-Najem is an anthropologist, conducting her PhD. research project at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam. Her PhD. project, Sisters in Islam. Women’s Conversion and the Politics of Belonging, addresses perceived tensions in the Netherlands between national, ethnic and religious identity, in the context of women’s conversion to Islam.
Program:
Chair: prof. Annelies Moors Program Director Muslim Cultural Politics, AISSR University of Amsterdam
13:00-13:15 Opening
13:15-13:30 Halim El Madkouri, FORUM, Institute for Multicultural Affairs Commissioning Social Science Research
13:30-14:00 Iman Lechkar – Revisiting Conversion Theories
14:00-14:30 Discussion
14:30-15:00-Daniela Stoica – Redefining Feminine Identities through Islam. The Experience of Romanian Women
15:00-15:30 Discussions
15:30-16:00 Break
16:00-16:30-Vanessa Vroon-Najem – Sisters in Islam: Women’s Conversion and the Concept of Sisterhood
16:30-17:00-Discussion
17:00 Drinks at the museum restaurant
It is necessary to register for this seminar. If you would like to attend, please send an e-mail to: v.e.vroon@uva.n
Why not speaking about any thing else but X or Y AND Islam. I should suggest that you try to think of the following question: who is making career when speaking about Islam? You will find researchers, so-called scholars, journalists, universities, politicians, even municipalities, all have made it through bulshiting about Islam and Muslims. Congrates to all of you and bye bye to ethics.