The revival of Islam in the central Russian republic of Tatarstan has transformed the daily landscape and the very notion of Muslim piety in the region. While a growing number of historically Muslim Tatars of all ages are embracing embodied piety, an older generation’s turn to religion is often perceived as late in coming and insincere. Based on ethnographic research and personal narratives of practicing Muslim Tatar women, I explore the ways the older women (re)construct their Muslim identities in the context of Tatars’ recent interest in Islam. Specifically, I analyze two older Tatar women’s stories about their paths to Islam. My analysis suggests that by tapping into the Soviet past, the women strive to create a continuously moral self that can serve as a solid basis for their present-day Muslim piety.
This article examines post-Soviet Muslim revival among the Volga Tatars, historically Sunni (Hanafi) Muslims, in the central Russian Republic of Tatarstan. Drawing on ethnographic research among practicing Muslim Tatar women and discourse analysis of their piety stories, I argue that at the heart of the revival is the Tatars’ debate over the extent and nature of Islam that should be part of Tatar identity. In this debate, sources of Islamic knowledge and physical manifestations of Muslim piety function as the primary, if inaccurate, indicators of one’s Muslim identity. I conclude that practicing Muslim Tatars are aware of the role their religious education and physical practices play in others’ (often stereotypical) perceptions of them, and they deal with such perceptions by (re)negotiating their religious identities in personal narratives.
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