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Masteroppgave---Gasser.Pdf (1.501Mb) Becoming Sisters Reworking Femininity and Relatedness among Muslim Converts in Buenos Aires Tiffany Utvær Gasser Master Thesis Department of Social Anthropology University of Oslo May 2016 © Tiffany Utvær Gasser 2016 Becoming Sisters Tiffany Utvær Gasser http://www.duo.uio.no Print: Mail Boxes Etc. ii Abstract This thesis is based on six months of fieldwork among converts to Islam in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is located at the theoretical intersection of gender, kinship, and religious studies. I explore how religious conversions lead to processes that involve the reworking of identity and femininity. This multilayered point of departure enables a unique approach to conversion to Islam, and in this case, allows me to tackle the importance of the concept of sisterhood. I argue that sisterhood is a platform on which women can rework identity issues and religious piety along Islamic guidelines, which also brings forward new imaginations of kinship ties. In addition, a focus on the practices of Islam in Buenos Aires can illustrate new understandings of how the religion is appropriated in a Latin American context. At the same time, the conjunction of the local and the global highlights how Islamic practices in Argentina cannot be disassociated from global connections. An important dimension of this study is how I approach the mundane and ordinary practices of Islam. Also, by illustrating religious practices within a less explored context, namely Latin America, I wish to complicate the often rather simplified picture of Islam we are faced with these days. These explorations begin with an investigation of what religious conversion to Islam implies. In chapter two, I look at how conversion can be theorized and how it becomes embodied by the new Muslims. New bodily practices and conceptions of the self and the body are appropriated and negotiated. In chapter three, I explore how kinship ties are reconceptualized to incorporate Islamic concepts of brother- and sisterhood, which also includes changing imaginations of marriage in light of one’s new religion. The Islamic faith, its effects, and enactments are the topic of the next chapter in which I review a matter often discussed during my fieldwork, namely the ideal of becoming a good Muslim. In the last chapter, I zoom out from the Argentine context in order to contextualize previous discussions within a global framework, and I review each of the topics from earlier chapters in light of their global presence. iii iv Note on Transliteration In this thesis, I follow the system outlined by the International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies (IJMES) with some modifications in order to transliterate Arabic words. To the best of my capacity, I apply the use of diacritics and other rules. However, I use the English plural ending in –s for simplicity’s sake. v vi Acknowledgements First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the leaders of the mosques I was able to visit so often during my fieldwork. I was welcomed in a warm manner to your religious institutions, and taken with a lot of patience despite the lack of understanding for what this researched entailed. Further, I would like to thank the department of social anthropology and the European Research Council for much needed financial funding. Thank you to my parents and co-students for your support during this time, especially to Gard and Kaja for keeping me going even when I could not understand where I was headed. In addition, thank you to Emilie for asking the right questions when I needed it the most. My sincerest gratitude goes to my supervisor, Elisabeth Schober, for her patience and constructive critique for this thesis. Your support has helped me get through the most difficult stages of this process, and you have taught me more than you know. Further, I am thankful for the rest of the Overheating research group and their valuable feedback. Unquestionably, I am deeply grateful for Sean, my fiancé’s presence in the field and constant help – you are my rock throughout time. Most of all, I am grateful for the Muslim men, but especially women I met in Buenos Aires. It has been an honor to be part of your lives, and you have allowed me to grow so much. I hope to have given an adequate picture of who those lovely women are, and any negative portrayal is my own mistake. Shortly, shukrān hermanas. vii Trevor Nickolls: Warmun Mandala (c) Trevor Nickolls/BONO The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) / ERC Grant Agreement n. [295843]. viii Table of Contents ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................................... III NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION .......................................................................................................... V ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................................. VII TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................................................................................... IX CHAPTER ONE – INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 1 GUIDING THEMES ................................................................................................................................... 2 BUENOS AIRES, THE SUPER-DIVERSE LANDSCAPE ......................................................................................... 4 The Religious Scene ........................................................................................................................ 5 HISTORY OF ISLAM IN BUENOS AIRES ......................................................................................................... 6 An Alternative History .................................................................................................................... 8 ENTRY TO THE FIELD ................................................................................................................................ 8 THE MOSQUES ..................................................................................................................................... 10 The Islamic Center of Buenos Aires .............................................................................................. 11 The Sufi Derga .............................................................................................................................. 13 KEY INFORMANTS ................................................................................................................................. 15 METHODOLOGY, LANGUAGES, AND MY ROLE IN THE FIELD .......................................................................... 16 Determining the Field .................................................................................................................. 17 A non-Muslim in the Mosques ..................................................................................................... 17 The Time in Between Prayers ....................................................................................................... 19 Lost in Translation ....................................................................................................................... 19 Ethical Considerations ................................................................................................................. 20 STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS ..................................................................................................................... 21 CHAPTER TWO – RELIGIOUS CONVERSION AND REWORKED FEMININITIES ................................... 23 APPROACHES TO RELIGIOUS CONVERSION ................................................................................................ 23 A Note on Agency ........................................................................................................................ 26 Religious Revivalism and Conversion ........................................................................................... 26 THE ATTRACTION OF ISLAM: CONTEXT AND CRISIS OF CONVERSION .............................................................. 27 THE RITUAL COMMITMENT: BECOMING A MUSLIM .................................................................................... 30 CONSEQUENCES: EMBODIMENT OF CONVERSION ....................................................................................... 31 PRACTICES OF ISLAM ............................................................................................................................. 31 ix An Islamic Name .......................................................................................................................... 32 THE HEALTHY BODY .............................................................................................................................. 33 Fasting as Health, Fasting as an Issue ......................................................................................... 34 THE MODEST BODY .............................................................................................................................. 35 Modesty and Argentine Society ................................................................................................... 37 APPROACHES TO SEXUALITY ..................................................................................................................
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