Papers are solicited that offer perspectives on gender relations in Islamic communities in Africa in the context of globalisation and modernity. Emphasis should be on the agency and diversity among women (and men) in the way they construct multiple identities in the context of global as well as local transformation-processes.
If studies on the effects of globalisation have often cast subjects in Africa as receptors rather than actors, this is particularly true for women in Islamic communities in Africa. Apart from stimulating new life-styles and trans-national orientations, processes of globalisation might also lead to a renewed emphasis on the ´authentic´ cultural identity of the group. These revitalization processes are in Islamic communities often based on an exclusivist notion of belonging, based on religious texts and geared at purifying local religion from either foreign or local ‘stains’. Women are central to these processes as they are cast as the symbols of Muslim group-identity, the guardians of Muslim traditions, and the markers of the boundary of righteous believers. However, women are hardly seen as actors in these transformation processes, nor perceived as participants in trans-national networks or other globalizing phenomena. For this panel papers are solicited which point out the agency and diversity among women in/from Islamic communities. Of particular interest are those analyses which focus on the way women construct and re-construct their (gendered) identities in relation to global processes of change. Relevant issues to discuss are for example: ´What are the effects of trans-national networks, such as the influence of migrants, on cultural ¨traditions¨, fashions and (alternative) identity-constructions both “at home” and ”abroad”? What are the strategies of female cultural brokers involved in transforming local practices and ideas which “come in” via the (virtual) media, participation in (trans-national) networks, hearsay? Who resist these changes and why?
This paper reflects on research (2003/4) carried out among Somalis in the Netherlands on the circumcision of Somali girls (8 – 14 yrs.). It analyses why some Somali migrants stick more strictly to the practice than their relatives in Somalia, and whether this is related to the idea that the practice enhances the ethnic and gender identity.
In Sudan professional elite women seem reluctant to marry. Therefore the Islamist government organizes mass-weddings. At the same time wearing a white ‘western’ wedding-dress has recently become fashionable among the urban elite. Are these issues surrounding marriage related? What is the effect of globalization? Are women involved in these transformations as agents?
In my paper on Sufi (Mourid) women's oral tradition, I will use field material about Mourid women in Senegal and Spain, linking their popular oral tradition, rich in legends about Mame Diarra Bousso, the mother of the founder of Mouridism, to classical Sufi models and metaphors as well as to current translocal Islam as lived and experienced by the female Senegalese migrants in the diaspora.
Within the limited corpus of writings on the Tablīgh Jamā‘at - a transnational Muslim missionary movement which has its origins in India- almost no mention has been made of the involvement of women in the movement. This paper aims to describe women not only as objects in Tablīgh discourse with its strong emphasis on gender segregation, but rather as active agents in the Islamization process in The Gambia.
Taking colonisation as the onset of modernity and globalisation for Zanzibar, this paper will account for the impact of these processes on a local level. Gender as well as family relationships will be traced throughout the first half of the 20th century, accounting for how colonisation has affected marriage, divorce and property relations among Zanzibaris. The varied agency of Zanzibari women and men allowed them to cope with the impact of social, religious, political and economic changes on their families during this period without losing their 'Islamic identities'.
The paper will deal with the process of negotiating gender identities in Sudanese families in the context of globalization. Thereby Sudanese families are complex institutions where discourses on modernity and Islam take place. New income earning opportunities for women facilitate this process of renegotiating gender identities. Thereby not only the concept of a good woman is challenged but much more the male identity of being the provider of the family.
The paper explores how multiple identities are constructed and negotiated among Kalolai Hadendowa under influence of an Islamic movement founded by the late Ali Betai, a religious and political leader.The paper shows how ethnic identity, articulated in the traditional low Salief and Shariah in Ali Betai's interpretation has become increasingly important in the organisation of everyday life in a modern context.
This paper investigates the contributions of Muslim women who lived in the early 1900s, in a South African fishing community that faced major socio-economic challenges. Five 80-90 year old community members constructed their own selfhood in relation to women activists of the time. Their indigenous knowledge provided dynamic gendered insights of what women’s involvement were in community activism.
In this paper I wish to discuss the different ways in which women (and men) deal with the everyday constraints of being a Muslim in Burkina Faso and how those who are not practising religion justify their behaviour. The traditional ideals set forth by the older generation are not always compatible with the emerging forms of globalised existence of urban Burkinabe. I will address the issues of the conflict and the coexistence of traditional and modern practices and how individuals negotiate their lives in these circumstances.
The study of globalization and the role of the media is now part and parcel of anthropological research. Many scholars study the influence of media on 'local' culture. This research provides a new perspective by comparing the creolization of global media and rural and urban ritual in Senegal. The central theme is the kanyalen ritual, a procreation ritual of women, in the context of Islamic rites de passage in general.