Migrant Living Spaces: Religiosity and Gender in a Disciplinary Institution

Abstract

This article looks at the production of gendered pious subjectivities at an Islamic student dorm in the Netherlands, for Turkish–Dutch female students. Following the Foucauldian framework of disciplinary power, we trace how normalising disciplinary techniques are at work in the dorm. We note, however, that members of the dorm voluntarily subject themselves to this power, as they are highly committed to Islamic self-development and living in a pious universe as a mode of being. Members perceive the disciplinary sanctions on themselves as necessary. Therefore, we argue that the constitution of gendered pious subjects is a product of the interplay between agentic subjects and the disciplinary, normalising techniques of the dorm. We want to also stress, however, that gender norms become all the more binding and stringent when people are held accountable by a disciplinary institution rather than personal ethical convictions.