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, Viadrina-University Frankfurt/Oder
The project aims at combining the analysis of gender role construction
in the Turkish-Islamic organisation Milli Görüs (IGMG)
with a discussion on gender approaches in Islamic contexts. The
main focus lies on the broadly discussed question of whether liberal-democratic
public spheres in Europe generate specific “European”
or “German” versions of Islam or whether gender discourses
in Muslim organisations point instead to the transnational ties
and continuities of Muslim traditions in migratory contexts.
Initially the project will provide insights into key historical
backgrounds, in particular in the context of positioning local
Muslim actors vis-à-vis the colonial powers in the 19th
century. The tension between the public visibility of Muslim women
and the recourse to a gender concept defined by Islam was moulded
during this period. The aim of the inquiry is to situate contemporary
gender constructions within the organised Sunni field in Germany
in an “Islamic discursive tradition” (Asad 1986).
In a second phase, using qualitative interviews and field observations
I will analyse the gender conceptions that circulate discursively
within the IGMG and the social-religious practices generated thereby.
In this context I will conduct a discourse analysis of published
and unpublished texts, including those on Internet sites, videos
and audio-cassettes, on gender-related issues diffused by the
organisation. The focus is on the following questions: towards
which local or global religious, or indeed secular, authorities
are the discourses and practices oriented? To what extent do they
point to transnational discourse circulations? What role do women
play in the organisation and the movement’s transnational
network?
The project presupposes that new forms of collectivisation of
Islam in Europe will emerge in a reciprocal process between Muslims
and the “recipient societies”. In a third phase, the
project will embed the gender discourses more systematically in
the German public sphere. The aim is to analyse the strategies
actors use to position themselves in a public discursive field,
which potentially rules out their compatibility with the normative
premises of German society.
The project pledges to enrich the research field in many respects.
On the one hand, it will draw historical analogies to the contemporary
situation of Muslims in Europe. It thereby attempts to overcome
the attitude of regarding Muslim forms of social life in Europe
as the result of migration processes, and instead regard it as
a phenonomen that could be characterised as the continued interaction
between modern rationalities and Islamic discursive traditions.
On the other hand, the project embeds contemporary discourses
and practices systematically in a transnational perspective, in
an endeavour to go beyond the perception of European forms of
Islam as a niche phenomenon. While most studies have focused primarily
on the individual social strategies of Muslim women, this project
will concentrate on collective and organised forms of Islam in
Germany. It will furthermore include voices of male actors and
their views on gender roles. Only this complementary view will
reveal the legitimacy and authorisation of certain gender conceptions
in Muslim community life in Germany, particularly of reform-oriented
approaches.
Finally, the research project attempts to consistently combine
the “internal perspective” of Muslim minorities with
an analysis of the normative premises of the majority societies,
thereby calling into question the common demand for a linear adaptation
of Muslims to predefined norms. Hence the study will contribute
to challenging dominant discourses, which, especially with regard
to gender constructions, tend to interpret potential conflicts
solely as the result of young Muslims undergoing a process of
Islamisation.
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