Abstract
Abstract Moving away from politicised and institutional agendas, research on Muslims has now begun to document the voices and concerns of individual Muslim women. Based on two years of doctoral fieldwork in and around London, this paper raises methodological dilemmas in the study of Muslim communities. It then presents data showcasing how Muslim women are successfully creating hybrid identities, and navigating new sites and opportunities for mutual exchange with non-Muslims. It argues that their public interactions as religious women living in a liberal secular society provide hope for a plural Britain, built on a convivial and interactive model of integration.
Highlights
It’s almost akin to the Stepford wives syndrome ... we don’t have a say, we don’t decide, we don’t choose
While early studies documented the more macro-level, institutional and politically contingent aspects of Muslim life in Britain, recent research has presented a deeper engagement with the daily lives, motivations and voices of the individuals who make up Muslim societies
Recent anthropological and sociological ethnographies have begun to recognise that ‘focusing only on the visual and the ritual narrows down Islamic identity considerably’ (Bectovic, 2012: 21)
Summary
It’s almost akin to the Stepford wives syndrome ... we don’t have a say, we don’t decide, we don’t choose. Realities; a major argument of her book is that these women were ‘affected by the religious, moral, and gender ambiguities and uncertainties that characterise a contemporary, liberal, multifaith society’ (ibid.: 2016:222) Relevant here is her commitment to the direct voices and views of the women; in studying ‘the implications of Islamic beliefs in daily life’ (bidl.: 2016:18), Inge has delivered an insightful and engaged ethnography of Muslim women’s lives. As in the case of Contractor’s study quoted above, Jacobsen defers to themes of Islamic self-fashioning that have been identified as important by the women themselves Rather than imposing her own research agendas, she has showcased themes raised by participants: suppressing material and sexual desires in their quest for piety, navigating faith in secular spaces and the importance of freely choosing to practice Islam (Jacobsen, 2010, 2011). It is significant that she continues to challenge previous ‘veil and victimhood’ depictions of Muslim women
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