To Wear or Not to Wear the Hijab Online (a Study of the Identity Performances of Muslim Canadian Women on Facebook)
Autor/in:
Mohammadi, Fatemeh
Quelle: Journal of Cyberspace Studies, 4 (2020) 2, S 81-160
Inhalt: This paper looks at how Muslim women with an Iranian background and now living in Canada perform their identity through wearing the hijab. This was achieved by observing the behavior of six members of this community on Facebook using Erving Goffman’s stigmatization theory. The observation reveals that women who wear the hijab are more likely to identify themselves as Muslim-Canadian while those who have abandoned the hijab after immigration are more likely to identify themselves as Iranian-Canadian. Moreover, the results show that while Goffman’s theory is very useful in trying to understand the stigmatization of the veil after the 9/11 attacks as well as other extremists’ attacks, the pressures that this created on Muslim women, as well as the behavior of some women in dropping the veil in order to ‘pass’ such stigmatization, his theory is of limited use in understanding the more complicated performance of women who kept their hijab in spite of the challenges they faced.
Faith-based organisations as welfare providers in Brazil: the conflict over gender in cases of domestic violence
Autor/in:
Beecheno, Kim
Quelle: Social Inclusion, 7 (2019) 2, S 14-23
Inhalt: What does the growth of faith-based organisations (FBOs) in social welfare mean for women’s rights and gender equality, especially within advocacy services for women experiencing domestic violence? Through empirical research within a Catholic-based organisation providing welfare services to abused women in São Paulo, Brazil, this article argues that FBOs can negatively impact the provision of women's rights when conservative and patriarchal views towards gender and women’s roles in society are maintained. A heavily matrifocal perspective, where women’s identity and subjectivity are mediated through their normative roles as wives, mothers and carers of the family, appears to offer little possibility of change for abused women, who are encouraged to forgive violent husbands and question their own behaviour. Mediation between couples is promoted, undermining women's rights upheld through Brazil's domestic violence law (Lei Maria da Penha no 11.340). Furthermore, the focus of family preservation, supported by a patriarchal state, means that violence against women (VAW) appears to be subordinated to a focus on family violence and violence against children. In this case, faith-based involvement in social welfare rejects the feminist analysis of VAW as a gender-based problem, viewing it as a personal issue rather than a collective or political issue, making women responsible for the violence in their lives.
When the Personal Is Always Political: Norwegian Muslims' Arguments for Women's Rights
Autor/in:
Helseth, Hannah
Quelle: Social Inclusion, 6 (2018) 4, S 59-66
Inhalt: For almost two decades, the public debate about Islam in Western Europe has been dominated by concerns about the lack of gender equality in the racialized Muslim population. There has been a tendency to victimize "the Muslim woman" rather than to encourage Muslim women’s participation in the public debate about their lives. This contribution to the study of discourses on Muslim women is an analysis of arguments written by Muslims about women’s rights. The data consists of 239 texts written by self-defined Muslims in major Norwegian newspapers about women’s rights. I will discuss two findings from the study. The first is an appeal to be personal when discussing issues of domestic violence and racism is combined with an implicit and explicit demand to represent all Muslims in order to get published in newspapers - which creates an ethno-religious threshold for participation in the public debate. The second finding is that, across different positions and different religious affiliations, from conservative to nearly secular, and across the timeline, from 2000 to 2012, there is a dominant understanding of women's rights as individual autonomy. These findings will be discussed from different theoretical perspectives to explore how arguments for individual autonomy can both challenge and amplify neoliberal agendas.
Schlagwörter:Arendt, H.; Arendt, H.; Feminismus; feminism; Individualismus; individualism; Neoliberalismus; neoliberalism; Islam; Islam; Gleichstellung; affirmative action; Menschenrechte; human rights; woman; Muslim; Muslim; Europa; Europe; Norwegen; Norway; Brown, W.; public debate; traditional media; women’s rights
SSOAR Kategorie:Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, Religionssoziologie
Solidarity in Head-Scarf and Pussy Bow Blouse: Reflections on Feminist Activism and Knowledge Production
Autor/in:
Gemzöe, Lena
Quelle: Social Inclusion, 6 (2018) 4, S 67-81
Inhalt: The author of this article discusses the ways in which gender equality and intersectionality are understood and enacted in two recent feminist campaigns in Sweden that use similar techniques to mobilise support for different causes. The first campaign is the so-called Hijab Call-to-Action, a solidarity action that took place in 2013 in which women in Sweden wore a hijab (the Muslim headscarf) for one day in defence of Muslim women’s rights. This campaign manifests the ways in which the notion of gender equality brings with it a norm of secularity, but also how the equation of equality and secularity is contested. The second feminist campaign discussed is the so-called Pussy Bow Blouse manifestation that aimed at taking a stand in the controversies surrounding the Swedish Academy as a result of the Metoo campaign in Sweden. The author looks at the political and discursive processes enfolded in these campaigns as a sort of collective learning processes that connect feminist activism and scholarship. A key concern is to critically analyse a binary model of powerless versus gender-equal or feminist women that figure in both debates. Further, the author shows that both campaigns appeal to solidarity through identification, but at the same time underscore the contingent and coalitional nature of identity in the act of dressing in a scarf or a blouse to take on a (political) identity for a day.
From Salafi preaching to political preaching: women's turnout and the evolution of Salafi movements in Egypt
Titelübersetzung:Von der Salafiyya zur Politik: die politische Partizipation von Frauen und die Entwicklung der Salafiyya-Bewegungen in Ägypten
Autor/in:
Bouras, Naïma
Quelle: GENDER - Zeitschrift für Geschlecht, Kultur und Gesellschaft, 9 (2017) 1, S 30-43
Inhalt: "Der Beitrag beleuchtet das Engagement von Frauen im Umfeld der Salafiyya. Dazu wird gefragt, auf welche Weise Frauen an der Politisierung der Salafiyya-Strömungen teilhaben. Um dieser Frage nachzugehen, werden in einem induktiven Vorgehen zentrale Beiträge von Frauen zur Verbreitung der Salafiyya-Ideologie analysiert. Zudem wird die Teilnahme der Frauen - durch soziale Netzwerke wie Facebook oder ägyptischen Medien - am Prozess der Politisierung der Salafiyya nach dem Aufstand von 2011 untersucht." (Autorenreferat)
Inhalt: "This article investigates women's involvement in the Salafi milieu. We ask how women follow and participate in the politicization of Salafi trends. To answer this question, we analyze, through an inductive approach, their important contributions in spreading Salafi ideology. Then, we investigate their participation - through social networks (e.g., Facebook, Egyptian media) - in the process of Salafi politicization in the aftermath of the 2011 uprising." (author's abstract)
Schlagwörter:Ägypten; Egypt; Islam; Islam; Politisierung; politicization; Revolution; revolution; woman; Empowerment; empowerment; politische Partizipation; political participation; religiöse Bewegung; religious movement; arabische Länder; Arab countries; Nordafrika; North Africa
SSOAR Kategorie:Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, politische Willensbildung, politische Soziologie, politische Kultur, Religionssoziologie
Challenges for gender equality: women's religious circles in post-revolutionary Iran
Titelübersetzung:Herausforderung für Geschlechtergleichheit: religiöse Frauenzirkel im postrevolutionären Iran
Autor/in:
Chavoshian, Sana
Quelle: GENDER - Zeitschrift für Geschlecht, Kultur und Gesellschaft, 9 (2017) 3, S 117-132
Inhalt: "Die Handlungsmacht von Frauen im postrevolutionären Iran ist in hohem Maße mit religiösen Frauenzirkeln und deren spezifischen Ritualen verbunden. Aktuelle wissenschaftliche Arbeiten attestieren neuen Formen religiös basierter Präsenz von Frauen in der Öffentlichkeit eine hohe Bedeutung. Im Fall des Iran ist die drängende Frage, in welchem Ausmaß religiöses Handeln in weiblichen Pietätszirkeln - lange vor der Revolution 1978/79 gegründet und mit wachsender Relevanz danach - über diese Zirkel hinaus zivilgesellschaftliche Bedeutung zukommt. Diese Studie widmet sich den inneren Dynamiken unter Frauen innerhalb der Zirkel aus der Perspektive struktureller Machtbeziehungen. Im Mittelpunkt steht der Prozess der 'Selbst-Spiritualisierung' von Frauen, und zwar als eine Form der Selbstermächtigung und Selbstautorisierung, und weiterhin als Modus einer spirituell legitimierten Hierarchiebildung innerhalb der Zirkel. Es wird argumentiert, dass diese Art des religiösen Wettbewerbs unter Frauen Geschlechtersegregation reproduziert und die Unterordnung unter institutionalisierte Strukturen männlicher, religiöser Macht verstärkt. Die Wirkungen der 'Selbst-Spiritualisierung' in Form von Selbstermächtigung, Selbstautorisierung können aber auch als Ausdruck von Selbstbestimmung gelesen werden: über das Aushandeln von neuen Geschlechterrollen und politischen Lebenshaltungen, inklusive nichtreligiöser Bewegungen." (Autorenreferat)
Inhalt: "The agency of women in Islamicate societies is largely anchored in ideas over pious circles and gender-specific rituals. Recent studies attest religious modes of women's presence in the public space a high significance. Taking the case of Iran, the urging question is how and to which extent religious agency within female pious circles - which were formed before the 1978/9 Revolution and fashioned after it - has been able to attain broader civil significance beyond these circles. This study explores the inner dynamics of female pious circles among women as related to structural power relations. It spells out the process of 'self-spiritualization' to characterize interactions within the circles that act as a tool for self-elevation and self-authorization and as a mode of spiritually legitimated construction of hierarchies within the circles' spiritual empowerment. It is argued that a type of pious competition between the women unfolds leading to an affirmation of gender segregation and concomitantly, of submission to institutionalized structures of masculine hierarchy and power. Finally, it pursues the effects of unfolding 'self-spiritualization' through elevation, authenticity and self-authorization that might achieve a considerable degree of self-empowerment for negotiating gender roles and political life attitudes." (author's abstract)
Challenges for gender equality: women's religious circles in post-revolutionary Iran
Titelübersetzung:Herausforderung für Geschlechtergleichheit: religiöse Frauenzirkel im postrevolutionären Iran
Autor/in:
Chavoshian, Sana
Quelle: GENDER - Zeitschrift für Geschlecht, Kultur und Gesellschaft, 9 (2017) 3, S 117-132
Inhalt: "Die Handlungsmacht von Frauen im postrevolutionären Iran ist in hohem Maße mit religiösen Frauenzirkeln und deren spezifischen Ritualen verbunden. Aktuelle wissenschaftliche Arbeiten attestieren neuen Formen religiös basierter Präsenz von Frauen in der Öffentlichkeit eine hohe Bedeutung. Im Fall des Iran ist die drängende Frage, in welchem Ausmaß religiöses Handeln in weiblichen Pietätszirkeln - lange vor der Revolution 1978/79 gegründet und mit wachsender Relevanz danach - über diese Zirkel hinaus zivilgesellschaftliche Bedeutung zukommt. Diese Studie widmet sich den inneren Dynamiken unter Frauen innerhalb der Zirkel aus der Perspektive struktureller Machtbeziehungen. Im Mittelpunkt steht der Prozess der 'Selbst-Spiritualisierung' von Frauen, und zwar als eine Form der Selbstermächtigung und Selbstautorisierung, und weiterhin als Modus einer spirituell legitimierten Hierarchiebildung innerhalb der Zirkel. Es wird argumentiert, dass diese Art des religiösen Wettbewerbs unter Frauen Geschlechtersegregation reproduziert und die Unterordnung unter institutionalisierte Strukturen männlicher, religiöser Macht verstärkt. Die Wirkungen der 'Selbst-Spiritualisierung' in Form von Selbstermächtigung, Selbstautorisierung können aber auch als Ausdruck von Selbstbestimmung gelesen werden: über das Aushandeln von neuen Geschlechterrollen und politischen Lebenshaltungen, inklusive nichtreligiöser Bewegungen." (Autorenreferat)
Inhalt: "The agency of women in Islamicate societies is largely anchored in ideas over pious circles and gender-specific rituals. Recent studies attest religious modes of women's presence in the public space a high significance. Taking the case of Iran, the urging question is how and to which extent religious agency within female pious circles - which were formed before the 1978/9 Revolution and fashioned after it - has been able to attain broader civil significance beyond these circles. This study explores the inner dynamics of female pious circles among women as related to structural power relations. It spells out the process of 'self-spiritualization' to characterize interactions within the circles that act as a tool for self-elevation and self-authorization and as a mode of spiritually legitimated construction of hierarchies within the circles' spiritual empowerment. It is argued that a type of pious competition between the women unfolds leading to an affirmation of gender segregation and concomitantly, of submission to institutionalized structures of masculine hierarchy and power. Finally, it pursues the effects of unfolding 'self-spiritualization' through elevation, authenticity and self-authorization that might achieve a considerable degree of self-empowerment for negotiating gender roles and political life attitudes." (author's abstract)
From Salafi preaching to political preaching: women's turnout and the evolution of Salafi movements in Egypt
Titelübersetzung:Von der Salafiyya zur Politik: die politische Partizipation von Frauen und die Entwicklung der Salafiyya-Bewegungen in Ägypten
Autor/in:
Bouras, Naïma
Quelle: GENDER - Zeitschrift für Geschlecht, Kultur und Gesellschaft, 9 (2017) 1, S 30-43
Inhalt: "Der Beitrag beleuchtet das Engagement von Frauen im Umfeld der Salafiyya. Dazu wird gefragt, auf welche Weise Frauen an der Politisierung der Salafiyya-Strömungen teilhaben. Um dieser Frage nachzugehen, werden in einem induktiven Vorgehen zentrale Beiträge von Frauen zur Verbreitung der Salafiyya-Ideologie analysiert. Zudem wird die Teilnahme der Frauen - durch soziale Netzwerke wie Facebook oder ägyptischen Medien - am Prozess der Politisierung der Salafiyya nach dem Aufstand von 2011 untersucht." (Autorenreferat)
Inhalt: "This article investigates women's involvement in the Salafi milieu. We ask how women follow and participate in the politicization of Salafi trends. To answer this question, we analyze, through an inductive approach, their important contributions in spreading Salafi ideology. Then, we investigate their participation - through social networks (e.g., Facebook, Egyptian media) - in the process of Salafi politicization in the aftermath of the 2011 uprising." (author's abstract)
Schlagwörter:Revolution; Islam; religious movement; Arab countries; Politisierung; empowerment; politicization; religiöse Bewegung; woman; political participation; Islam; Empowerment; revolution; Egypt; Nordafrika; arabische Länder; Ägypten; North Africa; politische Partizipation
SSOAR Kategorie:Religionssoziologie, Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, politische Willensbildung, politische Soziologie, politische Kultur
Living Together v. Living Well Together: a Normative Examination of the SAS Case
Autor/in:
Beaman, Lori G.
Quelle: Social Inclusion, 4 (2016) 2, S 3-13
Inhalt: The European Court of Human Rights decision in SAS from France illustrates how a policy and national mantra that ostensibly aims to enhance inclusiveness, ‘living together’, is legally deployed in a manner that may have the opposite effect. In essence, despite acknowledging the sincerity of SAS’s religious practice of wearing the niqab, and her agency in making the decision to do so, the Court focuses on radicalism and women’s oppression amongst Muslims. Taking the
notion of living together as the beginning point, the paper explores the normative assumptions underlying this notion as illustrated in the judgment of the Court. An alternative approach, drawing on the work of Derrida for the notion of
‘living well together’ will be proposed and its implications for social inclusion explicated. The paper’s aim is to move beyond the specific example of SAS and France to argue that the SAS pattern of identifying particular values as ‘national values’, the deployment of those values through law, policy and public discourse, and their exclusionary effects is playing out in a number of Western democracies, including Canada, the country with which the author is most familiar. Because
of this widespread dissemination of values and their framing as representative of who ‘we’ are, there is a pressing need to consider the potentially alienating effects of a specific manifestation of ‘living together’ and an alternative model of ‘living well together’. (author's abstract)
Schlagwörter:Frankreich; France; Gesetzgebung; legislation; Gesetz; act; Religiosität; religiousness; Religionsgemeinschaft; religious community; Religionspolitik; religious policy; Islam; Islam; kulturelle Identität; cultural identity; soziale Norm; social norm; Wertkonflikt; conflict of values; Exklusion; exclusion; Vorurteil; prejudice; Stereotyp; stereotype; woman; Muslim; Muslim; Kleidung; clothing; Menschenrechte; human rights; soziale Integration; social integration
SSOAR Kategorie:Religionssoziologie, politische Willensbildung, politische Soziologie, politische Kultur
Islamism, Secularism and the Woman Question in the Aftermath of the Arab Spring: Evidence from the Arab Barometer
Autor/in:
Fox, Ashley M.; Abdelkarim Alzwawi, Sana; Refki, Dina
Quelle: Politics and Governance, 4 (2016) 4, S 40-57
Inhalt: "The uprisings that led to regime change during the early period of the Arab Spring were initially inclusive and pluralistic in nature, with men and women from every political and religious orientation engaging actively in political activities on the street and in virtual spaces. While there was an opening of political space for women and the inclusion of demands of marginalized groups in the activists' agenda, the struggle to reimagine national identities that balance Islamic roots and secular yearnings is still ongoing in many countries in the region. This paper seeks to deepen understanding of the extent to which the pluralistic sentiments and openness to accepting the rights women have persisted following the uprising. We aim to examine changes in attitudes towards women's equality in countries that underwent regime change through popular uprisings during revolutionary upheavals of the Arab Spring and in countries where regimes have remained unchanged. Using available data from consecutive rounds of the Arab Barometer survey, we examine changes in attitudes in nine countries with two rounds of Arab Barometer during and post Arab Spring (Egypt, Yemen, Tunisia, Algeria, Lebanon, Sudan, Jordan, Iraq, Palestine). We find that support for 'Muslim feminism' (an interpretation of gender equality grounded in Islam) has increased over the period and particularly in Arab Spring countries, while support for 'secular feminism' has declined. In most countries examined, relatively high degrees of support for gender equality co-exist with a preference for Islamic interpretations of personal status codes pertaining to women. We discuss the implications of these findings for academics and activists concerned with women's rights in the Middle East North Africa (MENA)." (author's abstract)
Schlagwörter:Nordafrika; North Africa; arabische Länder; Arab countries; Nahost; Middle East; politischer Wandel; political change; politische Partizipation; political participation; Islamismus; islamism; Säkularisierung; secularization; woman; Menschenrechte; human rights; Feminismus; feminism; Muslim; Muslim; Gleichstellung; affirmative action; Einstellung; attitude; gender-specific factors; Einstellungsänderung; attitude change; Islam; Islam; Religiosität; religiousness; Arab democratic exceptionalism; Arab Spring
SSOAR Kategorie:Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, politische Willensbildung, politische Soziologie, politische Kultur, Religionssoziologie