Interpreting Gender in Islam

Abstract

This article explores variation in how immigrant Muslim women in Oslo, Norway, interpret and practice gender relations within the framework of Islam. Religion, family, and work are important sites for the formation, negotiation, and change of gender relations. The article therefore discusses the views and experiences of immigrant Muslim women concerning wife-husband relations and participation in the labor market. Four analytical types of views toward gender relations are introduced, and the variation in gender practices and views found among Muslim women in Oslo is discussed in relation to these types. The analysis suggests that immigrant Muslim women use Islam as a flexible resource for interpreting gender relations. It also shows that while women generally uphold a religious ideal of complementary gender roles, their actual practice often contradicts with and contests this ideal.

Care in practice: negotiations regarding care for the elderly in multigenerational Arab Muslim families in Denmark

“…Some studies (Hansen, 2014;Moen, 2002) of family relations suggest that the conventions of early marriage for women, universal marriage for both sexes, and large age differences between spouses have changed a great deal in many respects over the past century. This, and the increased entry of women into the labor market (Predelli, 2004), may help to unravel the existing multigenerational household pattern and require changes in Fig. 3 The names marked in red are the people who help to care for Amne on a regular basis.…”

The Contextual and Household Contribution to Individual Health Status in Germany: What Is the Role of Gender and Migration Background?

“…The majority of Turks in Germany are very religious, whereas the religious faith is rather understood as a norm than as an individual decision (Wetzels and Brettfeld 2007). Turks are usually Muslims (Haug et al 2009), and in Islam roles tend to be non-interchangeable and the traditional family ideal is of great importance (Predelli 2004). Aussiedler are usually Christian (83%), and thus have the same confession as the majority of the German population without migration background (Worbs et al 2013).…”

Islamic Traditions of Modernity

“…Feminist scholarship highlights how Muslim women create and recreate their gendered identities in complex ways, such as through attire, social relations, and a domestic/public division of labor (Huisman and Hondagneu-Sotelo 2005; Hutson 2001; Killian 2003; Marshall 2005; Predelli 2004; Read and Bartkowski 2000). For these women, Islam becomes a flexible resource (Predelli 2004) and a “dynamic tool kit” (Bartkowski and Read 2003) used to activate, reinforce, and subvert gendered boundaries. This context-specific engagement with Islam to define gender empowerment is captured in ethnographic accounts of Muslim women’s participation in diverse Islamic movements (Mahmood 2005; Rinaldo 2013).…”