Diaspora of Islamic Cultures: Continuity and Change

This paper, drawing upon an ongoing research project funded by Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and the Ford Foundation, introduces the main ideas and themes that inform the study of changing gender and family relations among four displaced communities of Islamic cultures (Iranian, Afghan, Palestinian, and Pakistani). For members of each group, three sets of “circumstances” are analyzed – an individual’s experience in the home and host country, together with an examination of socio-economic conditions and policies in the host. In addition to these social and economic factors, in particular, it will focus on the ways in which social class, gender, and religious commitments affect an individual’s experience when they move. It is argued that gender significantly impacts new migrants’ experience and how they feel about their “home” country. One of our main hypotheses is that under pressures of a rapid, often difficult, social and cultural transformation, changing gender dynamics in the new country can lead to a new understanding among partners – or, alternatively, to heightened tension, with severely damaging effects, particularly for women and children. Culturally, when family understandings collapse, this process may be accompanied by an effort to find religious justification for gender inequality. Then, a connection can be seen between difficulties in the new country, the efforts of conservative men to reclaim the dominance they once enjoyed in their countries of origin, and give it a religious justification. Hence, the revival, in the diaspora, of conservative Islamic practice and belief.Inspiré d’un projet de recherche toujours en cours – projet financé conjointement par le Conseil de recherches en sciences humaines du Canada, CRSH, et la Fondation Ford – cet article présente les thèmes majeurs et les idées principales sous-jacents à cette étude sur les changements qui s’opèrent dans les relations entre membres des deux sexes ainsi qu’au sein de la structure familiale pour quatre groupes de déplacés de culture islamique – les communautés iranienne, afghane, palestinienne et pakistanaise. Trois ensembles de « circonstances » sont analysés pour les membres de chaque communauté : l’expérience personnelle d’un individu dans son pays d’origine et dans le pays hôte, ainsi qu’une analyse des conditions socio-économiques et des politiques en cours dans le pays hôte. En plus de ces facteurs sociaux et économiques, seront aussi examinés de plus près les façons dont l’appartenance à une classe sociale, le fait d’être un homme ou une femme et le degré d’attachement à la religion influent sur l’expérience d’un individu lorsqu’il émigre. L’auteure soutient que l’appartenance à un genre ou à un autre – la sexospécificité - influe de façon notable sur l’expérience vécue par les nouveaux migrants et sur leur sentiment envers leur ‘patrie’. L’une des principales hypothèses est que, sous la pression des transformations sociales et culturelles qui s’opèrent rapidement – et souvent difficilement – les changements dans la dynamique des relations entre les deux sexes dans le nouveau pays peuvent amener une nouvelle compréhension entre les partenaires – ou, au contraire, contribuer à des relations interpersonnelles plus tendues, avec des effets dommageables tout particulièrement pour les femmes et les enfants. Dans un contexte culturel, lorsque l’harmonie familiale se désintègre, ce processus peut s’accompagner d’efforts pour essayer de trouver des justifications religieuses à l’inégalité entre les genres. On peut donc établir un lien entre les difficultés vécues dans le nouveau pays et les efforts déployés par les hommes conservateurs pour essayer de retrouver leur position dominante qu’ils occupaient dans leur pays d’origine, tout en lui donnant une justification religieuse. Ceci explique la renaissance à l’intérieur de la diaspora, de pratiques et de croyances islamiques conservatrices

"Away from Home: Iranian Women, Displacement, Cultural Resistance, and Change"

This article discusses the gender character of displacement. Using the example of the Iranian female diaspora, it argues that women's experience of displacement is relatively more positive than that of men, and women, generally, are more prepared and make more efforts to build a home away from home. However, the pressures for cultural resistance against the dominant culture and the institutional racism in the host country may counterbalance the impact of women's positive experiences. Under the banner of 'cultural resistance', patriarchal values and sexist norms are revitalized within the family as well as in the community, and the voices of dissent are muted and dismissed as outside influences

Feminisme dan findamentalisme islam/ Moghissi

xxii, 228 hal.; 21 cm

"Diaspora of Islamic Cultures: Continuity and Change (Research Report)"

This paper, drawing upon an ongoing research project funded by Canada's Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and the Ford Foundation, introduces the main ideas and themes that inform the study of changing gender and family relations among four displaced communities of Islamic cultures (Iranian, Afghan, Palestinian, and Pakistani). For members of each group, three sets of "circumstances" are analyzed -- an individual's experience in the home and host country, together with an examination of socio-economic conditions and policies in the host. In addition to these social and economic factors, in particular, it will focus on the ways in which social class, gender, and religious commitments affect an individual's experience when they move. It is argued that gender significantly impacts new migrants' experience and how they feel about their "home" country. One of our main hypotheses is that under pressures of a rapid, often difficult, social and cultural transformation, changing gender dynamics in the new country can lead to a new understanding among partners -- or, alternatively, to heightened tension, with severely damaging effects, particularly for women and children. Culturally, when family understandings collapse, this process may be accompanied by an effort to find religious justification for gender inequality. Then, a connection can be seen between difficulties in the new country, the efforts of conservative men to reclaim the dominance they once enjoyed in their countries of origin, and give it a religious justification. Hence, the revival, in the diaspora, of conservative Islamic practice and belief

Feminisme dan Fundamental Islam (ALMUD)

228 hl

Feminisme dan Fundamentalisme Islam

xxii.228 hal.;21 c