Challenges and experiences of adopting a Muslim identity: narratives of Scottish and German women who converted to Islam.
Citation
(2016) Challenges and experiences of adopting a Muslim identity: narratives of Scottish and German women who converted to Islam., no. 62.
Abstract
This thesis sets out the narratives of Scottish and German women who converted to Islam, in
an attempt to explore the complexity of identity formation among Muslim women converts
who have to balance their native identity with their chosen one. This study builds upon a poststructuralist
conceptualisation of identity, whereby discourses shape the process of conversion
and subjective experiences of the women. Semi-structured interviews reveal how becoming
Muslim is constantly negotiated within old and new relations and within wider society. It
becomes evident that the adopted Muslim identity is not fixed and can only be understood as
multi-dimensional and mutli-layered. This thesis observes how women's discursive context
continuously shapes and re-negotiates their identity.