Islamic Sisters: Muslim Women Students’ Private “Resistance Practices”

Islam in France. Practices and daily lived experiences
By Rania Hanafi
English

Based on fieldwork among Muslim women students in several French cities and regions, this study focuses on the implications of young Muslim women students’ plans to pursue higher education and live outside their family homes. The study analyzes the impact of religious sorority within the context of complex family relationships and amid an increasing tendency for young Muslim women to pursue further education. These changes have provoked a confrontation between educational realities, religious subjectivities, and gender roles, while also affecting intergenerational family ties. The author seeks to reconsider what Herzbrun has called “practices of resistance” [2005] in private life, as Muslim young women use their religious subjectivities to express attitudes and behaviors that challenge patriarchal culture. The article ultimately reveals how living away from families may question the renewal of young women’s gender roles within their families.

Keywords

  • Sorority
  • Women living independently
  • Muslim women students
  • “Practices of resistance”
  • Extended education
  • Higher education
Go to the article on Cairn-int.info