A Glance to the Lives of Muslim Women in Hungary. One Community and Multiple Identities: Immigrant, Hungarian, Convert, Hijabi, Non-Hijabi

Abstract

Identity is considered as a non-stop process in this research, a process that has the potential of change depending on individual experiences, intra and intergroup relations and social circles around the individual. The purpose of this research was to comprehend how the participants build up their religious identities and what components are influential in their process of identification with religion. This research benefits from qualitative interviews and participant observation methods and the obtained data was coded and analyzed via one of the prominent CAQDAS Atlasti. The social identity, group identity theory, conversion and religious group identity theories, and previous empirical studies regarding Muslim women in Europe and in Hungary have been relied on while coding and analyzing the data. The research additionally focuses on understanding the participants` perception of self, belonging and their discourses related to Hungary and their home country. In this way, it aspires to formulate the possible ways to handle the problems they are facing due to some facets of their identity in Hungary. Including both Muslim immigrants, Hungarian converts and second-generation Muslim women from mixed families, the research endeavored to provide a more comprehensive study on the female members of the Muslim community in Hungary. The research studies in detail the accounts of participants in terms of their religious group identification and their discourses regarding how they become Muslims and how their process of becoming has taken place. Particularly, the conversion process of Hungarian women participants and the components of their conversion have been investigated. Hijab practice and meanings attributed to hijab are one of the central issues emerged from the accounts of the participants. Hence, the research explores these accounts in detail and analyzed how hijab takes role in self-identification of Muslim women and their group belonging. This study provides insights for the future sociological and political researches related to Muslim community.