Religious Conversion as a Dialogical Transformation of the Self – The Case of Polish Female Converts to Islam

Abstract

Religious conversion affects converts’ beliefs, values, practices, and social worlds. It is a process that entails profound changes in the content and structure of a self and is far from being confined to a single sphere of individual’s functioning. For Polish women who embrace Islam it also involves specific challenges related to becoming a member of a marginalized religious group often perceived by the Polish majority as alien, backward and threatening. Using the Personal Position Repertoire – Focus Group data collection tool and data from in-depth interviews and participant observation we explored the dialogical in-group activity of Polish female converts to Islam. The results of our analysis identified salient features of the converts’ self and situated them in a specific socio-cultural context of the conversion. We argue that the collective voices present in the internal and external dialogues conducted by converts are actively engaged with and appropriated. In this process, converts are able to move between different positions and negotiate their views and practices with the voices representing critical or hostile attitudes with a variety of outcomes, including silencing, rejection, acceptance, and making compromises. We discuss the applicability of the Dialogical Self Theory framework to the research on the dynamic, complex and embodied character of conversion and challenges related to the applied theory and methods.