Muslim Youth Negotiating Boundary Maintenance Between the Sexes: A Qualitative Exploration

Abstract

Studies on Muslim youth suggest that they experience difficulties with balancing Western culture and Islamic religious norms. This study focuses on boundary maintenance between the sexes, which entails physical or social distance and avoidance of touching and gaze. These aspects of everyday social life are imbued with much symbolic significance and value. The study examined the values and norms on this subject that Muslim youth were taught and socialized into at non-formal Islamic education settings, and then compared these with values and norms conveyed at secondary schools in the Netherlands. Due to its exploratory nature, the study adopted a qualitative approach. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 34 young adults and 28 students enrolled at secondary schools from four Muslim communities. The findings revealed that Muslim youth were taught and socialized into contradictory values and norms in these two learning contexts. While sex segregation was observed in non-formal Islamic education settings, participants’ mainstream schools were coeducational. Islamic ethos as practiced in this community required physical and social distancing between the sexes, avoiding male gaze, and refraining from physical touch. However, at schools, boys and girls were expected to work in groups, interact, discuss, and socialize, and handshaking with teachers before lessons was observed at some schools as a ritual. Moreover, the study explored four pathways Muslim youth adopted as they negotiated such competing values: conformity to religious values, code-switching, peer surveillance, and breaking away. The findings have implications for the social and cultural integration, mental health, and wellbeing of Muslim youth.