Migration and Redefining Self

Negotiating Religious Identity among Hazara Women in Germany

in Anthropology of the Middle East
Author:
Saideh Saidi Assistant Professor, Institute for Social and Cultural Studies, Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, Tehran, Iran saidi@iscs.ac.ir

Search for other papers by Saideh Saidi in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed Close
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3167/ame.2019.140206
Keywords:
Afghan diaspora; agency; change; Hazara woman; Islamic identity; lived religion; migration
Restricted access

All currencies in US Dollar

PayPal Logo

Abstract

This article explores how Afghan (Hazara) women negotiate and sift their religious understandings and identities over time after migrating to Germany. Migration experiences and exposure to German society has impacted their self-narration and conceptualisation of cultural change in their own identity. This ethnographic research illustrates the notion of acceptance or rejection to change among Hazara immigrant women in their lived religion in diaspora. Based on my fieldwork, three different trajectories along religious lines occur in the Afghan diaspora: a group of immigrants, enhancing Islamic values, whose relationship to and involvement in religion intensified and increased; the second group largely consider themselves secular Muslims trying to fully indulge into the new society; the third group has an elastic religious identity, blending Islamic values with Western-inspired lifestyles.

Contributor Notes

Saideh Saidi is Assistant Professor at the Institute for Social and Cultural Studies, Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, Tehran, Iran. She received her PhD in Anthropology and Cultural Studies from the University of Bremen. She teaches at Shahid Beheshti University and the University of Science and Culture in cultural anthropology, sociology of international migration and rural sociology. Recent publications include Juggling between Two Worlds: Sociocultural Change in Afghan Immigrant Women's Identity in Germany (2018). Her research interests include the relation between international migration and Afghan family dynamics and their identity through the anthropological lens in two main receiving countries in Europe (Germany) and Asia (Iran). Email: saidi@iscs.ac.ir

  • Collapse
  • Expand

Anthropology of the Middle East

Cover Anthropology of the Middle East
Article Category:
Research Article
Page Count:
20
Keywords:
Afghan diaspora; agency; change; Hazara woman; Islamic identity; lived religion; migration
Print Publication Date:
01 Dec 2019
Online Publication Date:
01 Dec 2019
Copyright:
© Berghahn Books 2019

  • Aartsen, M. J. and Jylhä, M. (2011), ‘Onset of Loneliness in Older Adults: Results of a 28 Year Prospective Study’, European Journal of Ageing 8, no. 1: 31–38.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Berry, J. W. (1997), ‘Immigration, Acculturation, Adaptation’, Applied Psychology: An International Review 46, no. 1: 5–33.

  • Berry, J. W., Phinney, J. S., Sam, D. L. and Vedder, P. (2006), Immigrant Youth in Cultural Transition: Acculturation, Identity, and Adaptation across National Contexts (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates).

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Bhabha, H. (2004), Location of Culture (London: Routledge).

  • Blood, P. R. (ed.) (2001), Afghanistan: A Country Study (Washington, DC: GPO for the Library of Congress).

  • Braakman, M. (2005), ‘Roots and Routes: Questions of Home, Belonging and Return in an Afghan Diaspora’, MA thesis, Leiden University.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Charmaz, K. (2003), ‘Grounded Theory’, in Qualitative Psychology: A Practical Guide to Research Methods, (ed.) J. A. Smith (London: SAGE), chapter 14.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Creasy, J. (2009), ‘The Religious Identity of Hazaras of Afghanistan and Modern Day Pakistan’, MA thesis, University of Glasgow.

  • De Jong Gierveld, J., Van der Pas, S. and Keating, N. (2015), ‘Loneliness of Older Immigrant Groups in Canada: Effects of Ethnic-Cultural Background’, Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology 30, no. 3: 251–268.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Esterberg, K. G. (2002), Qualitative Methods in Social Research (Boston: McGraw-Hill).

  • Fischer, C. (2017), ‘Imagined Communities? Relations of Social Identities and Social Organization among Afghan Diaspora Groups in Germany and the UK’, Journal of Intercultural Studies 38, no. 1: 18–35.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Gaur Sing, D. (2010), ‘Afghan Women in the Diaspora: Surviving Identity and Alienation’, NTS-Asia Working Paper no. 4, Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Gedalof, I. (2009), ‘Birth, Belonging and Migrant Mothers: Narratives of Reproduction in Feminist Migration Studies’, Feminist Review 93: 81–100.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Gray, B. (2004), Women and Migration (London: Palgrave).

  • Hollan, D. (2005), ‘Setting a New Standard: The Person-Centered Interviewing and Observation of Robert I. Levy’, ETHOS 33, no. 4: 459–466.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Jeldtoft, N. (2011), ‘Lived Islam: Religious Identity with ‘Non-organized’ Muslim Minorities’, Ethnic and Racial Studies 34, no. 7: 1134–1151.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Menjivar, C. (2003), ‘Religion and Immigration in Comparative Perspective: Catholic and Evangelical Salvadorans in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Phoenix’, Sociology of Religion 64, no. 1: 21–45.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Mishra, S. and Shirazi, F. (2010), ‘Hybrid Identities: American Muslim Women Speak Gender’, Place and Culture 17, no. 2: 191–209.

  • Nawa, F. (2001), Out of Bounds: Afghan Couples in the United States – A Study of Shifting Gender and Identity (San Francisco: Aftaabzad Publications).

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Noelle-Karimi, C. (2002), ‘History Lessons: In Afghanistan's Decades of Confrontation with Modernity, Women Have Always Been the Focus of Conflict’, Women's Review of Books 1, no. 3.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Oeppen, C. (2013), ‘Afghan Americans’, in Multicultural Americans: A Multimedia Encyclopedia, (ed.) C. E. Cortés (London: SAGE).

  • Omidian, P. A. and Lipson, J. G. (1996), ‘Ethnic Coalitions and Public Health: Delights and Dilemmas with the Afghan Health Education Project in Northern California,’ Human Organization 55, no. 3: 355–359.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Pollack, D. and Pickel, G. (2007), ‘Religious Individualization or Secularization? Testing Hypotheses of Religious Change: The Case of Eastern and Western Germany’, British Journal of Sociology 58, no. 4: 603–632.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Riessman, C. K. (2008), Narrative Methods for the Human Sciences (London: SAGE).

  • Rostami-Povey, E. (2003), Women in Afghanistan, Passive Victims of the Borga or Active Social Participants? Development, Women, and War: Feminist Perspectives, Development in Practice (Oxford: Oxfam).

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Schreier, M. (2011), ‘Qualitative Content Analysis’, in The Sage Handbook of Analyzing Qualitative Data, (ed.) F. Uwe (London: SAGE), chapter 12.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Shaffir, W. (1978), ‘Canada: Witnessing as Identity Consolidation: The Case of the Lubavitcher Chassidim’, in Identity and Religion: International, Cross Cultural Approaches (ed.) H. Mol (London: SAGE), 39–57.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Somerville, K. (2008), ‘Transnational Belonging among Second Generation Youth: Identity in a Globalized World’, in ‘Youth and Migration’, special volume, Journal of Social Sciences 10: 23–33.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Stowasser, B. (1996), ‘Women and Citizenship in the Quran’, in Women, the Family and Divorce Laws in Islamic History, (ed.) A Sonbol (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press), 23–38.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Tapper, R. (1986), ‘Ethnic Identities and Social Categories in Iran and Afghanistan’, in History and Ethnicity (ed.) E. Tonkin, M. McDonald and M. Chapman (London: Routledge), 232–245.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • UNHCR (2016), From a Refugee Perspective: Discourse of Arabic Speaking and Afghan Refugees and Migrants on Social Media from March to December 2016 (Geneva: UN Refugee Agency).

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Yasmeen, S. (2010), ‘Understanding the Exclusion/Inclusion Dynamics, Relevance for Muslims in Australia’, in Muslims in Australia: The Dynamics of Exclusion and Inclusion, (ed.) S. Yasmeen (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press), 1–10.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Zulfacar, M. (1998), Afghan Immigrants in the USA and Germany: A Comparative Analysis of the Use of Ethnic Social Capital (Münster: LIT Verlag).

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

Metrics

All Time Past Year Past 30 Days
Abstract Views 812 228 37
Full Text Views 71 4 0
PDF Downloads 111 14 0