Gendering Islam through migration: Egyptian women’s gatherings in a mosque in Turin (Italy)

Abstract

ABSTRACTItaly is the first European arrival country for many Egyptian migrants. A first wave of Egyptian male migrants in Italy was followed by a family reunification phase, with the result that the number of Egyptian women increased in the last decades. Studies of their diasporic experience, nonetheless, are still rare. In particular, analysis of women’s relationship with Islam is needed. Building on the anthropological work which has recently showed how the everyday constitutes a useful analytical category in relation to Islam, the aim of this article is to describe and analyse women’s activities in a mosque in Turin during the years 2011–13. I argue that the role of religious spaces in the context of emigration goes beyond the religious sphere, and women’s participation should therefore be understood from a dual perspective: religious and spiritual, on the one hand, and social and cultural, on the other. The description of women’s everyday practices in religious space allows for a reflection on how migration shapes new Islamic identities that are co-constituted with morality, secularism and displacement. The article contributes to the debate on ‘everyday Islam’ by showing that the effects of migration on the religious experience, far from being homogeneous, can encompass both normativity and resistance.