Religious identities

Section 2.4 reported Dwyer’s (1999) findings that young British-Pakistani Muslim women draw on the Qur’an and more modest Islamic dress to resist the restrictive ethno-cultural practices of their parents. Yet despite Dwyer’s important observations, the emphasis on gender relations in the literature on Muslim geographies has resulted in less attention to the formation of religious identities (Hopkins, 2009c). This is beginning to change however, and scholars have recently focused on religious identity, largely in response to the growing literature on geographies of religion (for reviews see Gale, 2007; Kong, 2001, 2010; Olson et al., 2013). In so doing, scholars have highlighted, as with gender, the formation of religious identities in relation to the local, national and transnational context (Olson et al., 2013).

Much of the scholarship on religious identity is discussed in relation to gender and concerns Muslim women’s veiling practices. Research shows that some Muslim women have responded to global events and increasing hostility towards Muslims and Islam by choosing to veil, that is to wear some form of religious dress, stressing the importance of the body as a site of Islamic identity (Ehrkamp, 2013; Ryan and Vacchelli, 2013a; Secor, 2002). In so doing, some Muslim women have drawn on a “discourse of choice” to challenge assumptions of veiling as indicative of their failed integration in the West and as evidence of their “subordination” in Muslim culture (Lewis, 2009, pp. 69-70). Seen in this way, veiling can be understood as a “clothed performance” (Lewis, 2009, p. 70), undertaken in response to racialised and gendered discourses.

Secor (2002) specifically refers to the importance of local and national forces in shaping women’s choice to veil in Turkey. Secor (2002) discusses the way that, despite legislation prohibiting veiling in public spaces, some of her research participants chose to wear an adaptation of the veil to prevent being harassed in the street. Ehrkamp (2007) draws attention to neighbourhood surveillance that shapes the veiling practices of Muslim women, which are in turn influenced by transnational social ties. Specifically, Ehrkamp (2007) shows that the conservative interpretation of Islam among older generations of Muslim migrant women, Sunni Muslim communities, and migrants from rural communities in Turkey meant that some women felt they had to veil in public spaces. The literature here thus points to the multiple meanings attached to veiling and the historical, social and geographical specificity of the “act” of veiling (Lewis, 2009, p. 70; Secor, 2002; Dwyer, 1999, 2000). Furthermore, it demonstrates the importance of local social relations in shaping religious identities. This underlines the important social-spatial dynamics of veiling and thus raises questions for this study around the shifting practice of veiling before and after migration. However, in focusing on the way in which Muslim women veil in response to wider social processes and relations, it is important not to overlook their subjective experiences of veiling, i.e. what veiling means to them personally and, more pertinently in this study, how this changes through migration.

With particular relevance to the experience of migration, studies have shown that some migrants prioritise their Islamic identity over ethnic or national identity because it

provides “solace, certainty and reassurance in negotiating a new and unfamiliar environment” (Ryan and Vacchelli, 2013a, p. 97). Here, the notion of a transnational Islamic identity, the umma, provides Muslims with a “religious community transcending more localised forms of belonging” (Gale, 2007, p. 1019). Thus scholars acknowledge the importance of the umma in the everyday lives of migrants who are both uprooted from “home” and also face religious intolerance as a result of wider global events such as the terrorist attacks in the US, UK and Spain and the US-led “war on terror” (Ehrkamp, 2007; Aitchison et al., 2007).

In addition to the importance of a transnational Islamic identity in migrants lives, studies suggest that “lived religion” shapes daily life for those with religious beliefs (Orsi, 2003; Sheringham, 2010). “Lived religion” refers to the extension of religion beyond the sacred realm and into people’s everyday lives. Insights from the migration literature illuminate the notion that, particularly in the context of migration, religion can help people to negotiate life in the host country. For example, in researching Turkish Muslim migrants to Germany, Ehrkamp (2007) found that sending children to the

madrasah (Islamic education centre) and thus emphasising the centrality of Islam in their lives, was a strategy migrant parents used to forge a sense of belonging in their host community. Ryan and Vacchelli (2013a) examine the impact of migration on mothering practices among religiously conservative Muslim women in London. Using sociological theory, the authors show how Muslim women use Islam as a frame of reference, in other words as a guidebook for motherhood in the otherwise unfamiliar environment that they face as migrants in London. In a similar vein, Levitt (2003) considers the use of Islam and Christianity as a “moral compass” for new migrants to the UK and US. In addition, Levitt (2003) suggests that migrants draw on theological tenets to emphasise their exemplary conduct in their new communities and thus their worthiness as citizens. This reference to theology by Levitt’s (2003) research participants resonate with Ley and Tse (2013, p. 162) who caution “Spiritual experience cannot be adequately reduced to social facts” revealing the need to go beyond the material outcomes of faith to examine more spiritual aspects of faith in the everyday lives of migrants.

Research has highlighted the relationship between spirituality and migration; for instance, Silvey (2005, 2007) found that migrant women drew on their Islamic faith for

spiritual strength to cope with the hardships of post-migration life in Saudi Arabia, a faith that brought them closer in their relationship with Allah. However, despite Silvey’s important insights, the relationship between spirituality and migration is underexplored (Ley and Tse, 2013). Ley and Tse thus call for further research to illuminate the deeper spiritual meanings of religion that arise through migration. In keeping with this, in their study of the Christian evangelical church in Europe, Ley and Tse (2013, p. 163) state: “In the liminal experience of immigrant dispossession, conditions exist for an estrangement from worldly habits and desires and an efflorescence of religious practice.” Similarly, scholars have emphasised the need to more closely examine the ways in which religion incites diverse emotions in people. In particular, Hopkins (2009c, p. 12) suggests the need to attend to “the ways in which religion provides people with a sense of comfort, purpose and fulfilment during their everyday lives.” Drawing on such insights, what can this study reveal about the way in which Muslim women’s religious identities are shaped through the experience of migration? How important is faith and spirituality in helping Muslim women to negotiate everyday life in Scotland and to what extent do women embody their religion as a way to cope with the difficulties of migration? These are just some of the questions that this thesis will seek to examine through an analysis of Muslim women’s experiences of migration to Scotland. Extending this discussion of the role of religion in Muslim women migration experiences, the following section examines the role of both non-secular and secular institutions in shaping Muslim women’s everyday lives in the host country.