“Islam Is My Washing Line” ; Long-Term Religious Trajectories of Dutch Female Converts to Islam

Abstract Although conversion is an ongoing religious journey, it is rarely studied as such. This article provides a longitudinal study of conversion to Islam by Dutch women. People who recently convert might firmly hold on to their new convictions, not providing space for doubts and uncertainty, whereas studying the long-term process also gives insights into moments of weak belief, doubts, and ambivalence, or growing faith and spirituality. Not only these internal contestations are important to examine, also the context of the conversion narrative can change over time. Conversion is a conteste... Mehr ...

Verfasser: van Nieuwkerk, Karin
Dokumenttyp: Artikel
Erscheinungsdatum: 2023
Reihe/Periodikum: Religion and Gender ; volume 13, issue 2, page 186-205 ; ISSN 2589-8051 1878-5417
Verlag/Hrsg.: Brill
Schlagwörter: Religious studies / Anthropology / Cultural Studies / Gender Studies
Sprache: unknown
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-26651941
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/18785417-01302004

Abstract Although conversion is an ongoing religious journey, it is rarely studied as such. This article provides a longitudinal study of conversion to Islam by Dutch women. People who recently convert might firmly hold on to their new convictions, not providing space for doubts and uncertainty, whereas studying the long-term process also gives insights into moments of weak belief, doubts, and ambivalence, or growing faith and spirituality. Not only these internal contestations are important to examine, also the context of the conversion narrative can change over time. Conversion is a contested issue, yet which aspects of the conversion are contested can shift due to societal debates on Islam. This article conceptualizes the conversion experience as a contextual narrative of the ongoing religious transformation of the ‘self’ in relation to different ‘others’ over time.