Women Embracing Islam: Gender and Conversion in the West

Introduction: Gender and Conversion to Islam in the West

introduction Gender and Conversion to Islam in the West Karin van Nieuwkerk Conversion to Islam by women in the West may evoke a range of sensitive issues. Crossing religious and ethnic boundaries generally disturbs conventions and can engender hostility. Female conversions may raise even stronger reactions because traditions have often constructed women as symbolsofethnicandreligiousboundaries .FemaleconversiontoIslamsummons up particularly fierce battles because gender issues have been pivotal in the construction of Otherness between “Islam” and the “West.” Female converts are thus regularly treated with hostility. A Dutch convert said, “People stare at you because they see that you are white. Maybe that is the cause of the aggression ; you are a traitor to the race.” By some Muslims, however, conversion by Western women is proclaimed and promoted. “Despite all the negative propaganda regarding Muslim women, female converts to Islam outnumber their male counterparts by an estimated ratio of 4:1!” Thus we are informed by “The True Religion,” a Web site with a clear missionary goal.1 One contentious issue is the extent of the phenomenon. Is the number of converts increasing? Are more women attracted to Islam than men? In a videotape, Osama Bin Laden told his Saudi visitor that after the 9/11 “operation ” more Dutch people had converted to Islam than in the previous eleven years.2 Similar rumors regarding Americans were spreading in the United States.3 These claims, as well as the statement that women converts outnumber men “by an estimated ratio of 4:1,” are clearly part of an ideological struggle (see also Allievi 1998, 241). Some academic research indicates, however, that maybe not four-fifths, but still two-thirds, of converts to Islam are female (Wohlrab-Sahr 1999b; Wagtendonk 1994; Haleem 2003). Whether this is generally valid is not clear. At this point we must simply state that we do not know exactly, since for most countries no statistics are available or the statistics do not distinguish between second-generation-born Muslims and native converts. What is clear, though, is that gender issues are focal in the discussions of conversion to Islam, whether statistically, ideologically, or symbolically. 2 wo m e n e m b r a c i ng i s l a m This book intends to go beyond the claims, competitions, and statistics, and to investigate why women are attracted to Islam. What are their motives and backgrounds and to what kind of Islam are they converting? To which messages are they attracted and in which ways? It will show the wealth of experiences behind conversion, as well as analyze the narratives that express thisexperience.Conversionisnotonlyamomentaryexperiencebutanongoing process of religious, social, and cultural transformation. How do converts create, embody, and transmit their new identity? What are the reactions and responses of society toward converts? What is the role converts play in society at large? What is their contribution to discourses on gender and Islam? This book will address these issues and provide empirical and comparative materials from Europe, the United States, and South Africa. Despite the importance of conversion and gender to Islam, these topics have hardly been studied. The literature on conversion particularly deals with new religious movements in the United States (Bruce 1999; Aldridge 2000)4 and does not include conversion to Islam. Although the spread of Islam in historical perspective has received attention (Bulliet 1979; Dutton 1999), conversions in present-day Western countries are not widely covered . Within the existing literature on contemporary conversion to Islam, a gender focus is not yet well developed. Gender issues are crucial, however, for our understanding of conversion to Islam, a task this volume intends to undertake. In this introduction, I will give an overview of the current state of research concerning gender and conversion to Islam. I will start with an examination of the conversion literature, followed by a discussion on what Islam has to “offer” converts. Next, I will examine what the literature has thus far mentioned about gender and conversion to Islam. Lastly, I will propose a tentative approach to the study of gender and conversion to Islam. Conversion There is a huge body of literature on conversion that is also relevant for the study of conversion to Islam. Historical developments noted by sociologists ofreligion,suchaspluralism,secularization,andprivatizationofreligion,are vital preconditions for the state of religion in general. As such, they are also important for conversion, including conversion to Islam (Luckmann 1999; Allievi 1998). In addition, the general process of modernization and individualization , which makes the individual agent the center of...