The Gender of Modernity. Narratives of Muslim and Islamist Migrant Women

This paper addresses issues of Islam, authenticity, modernity and tradition through the narratives and practices of a group of Muslim migrant women in Italy, predominantly of Moroccan origin. I wish to highlight how the perception of ‘being modern’ is always discursively articulated in opposition to the traditional features of an Other subject. Yet, while there are multiple and divergent ways of being and feeling ‘modern’ which are displayed through different narratives and practices, both the history of modernity and the way people engage it should be understood and analysed as part of a single global history which produced different narratives. I wish to show how, far from being homogeneous and shared, culturally alternative paths to ‘western modernity’ are not only multiple but may be also clashing. Indeed, amongst Muslim migrant women, notions of cultural authenticity and the ways these inform and are mingled with modern and traditional practices are highly contested. In the conclusion I argue that if we agree that the history of modernity is global from the outset, it is of no particular use to try to locate the geography of modernity or to search for local or culturally alternative notions of modernity prior to the encounter with the West. The recognition of the interrelated nature of histories and cultures overcomes the issue of the cultural location of modernity.