Thesis (Ph. D.)--Uppsala University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 289-311).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri--Columbia, 1997. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves : 66-71). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Queensland, 2004. / Includes bibliography.

This dissertation explores the experiences of British Muslim women of Pakistani ethnic origin living in Slough in the south-east of England in matters related to maITiage, divorce and everyday life by looking into their private and social worlds in a diasporic space. Pakistanis in Britain have seen a shift in their identity from being cast as south Asians to Muslims. Women belonging to this immigrant group are increasingly being seen as 'Muslim' with an automatic inference of their being oppressed victims. When these women exhibit agency dispelling the victim image, it is read within the sole perspective of religiosity framing them only as 'Muslim women' and ignoring other facets of their being. Their experiences as British citizens and members of an ethnic minority community, the rootedness of their regional affiliations in Pakistan, class, age and their location at intersections of historical and geographical movements are subsumed by an essentialized understanding of their being Muslim. An investigation into the strategies of British-Pakistani Muslim women in Slough negotiating issues of space, clothing, language, education, employment, religiosity, ethnicity, identity, and most importantly, marriage and divorce calls for a reconsideration of notions of subject and agency. Drawing on feminist interpretations, the thesis recasts these women as 'strategizing-agentic' subjects who exhibit agency drawing from diverse even oppositional traditions. Ethnographic research methods are used to generate qualitative data that details the experiences of British-Pakistani Muslim women in Slough.

The Islamic dress code has been forcibly imposed on the women in Sudan, since 1983, and many feminists researchers have criticized the practices of the veil as a tool to oppress women. This study aimed to explore a group of Sudanese women, currently living in South Africa, experiences and perceptions of the veil, whether the veil is a religious dress code or a tool that has been used to exercise inequality.

The aim of this research is to investigate the extent to which human rights in Islam corresponds with the international schemes of human rights despite its "cultural particularities". This thesis investigates the right to freedom of faith in light of the main textual sources in Islamic Shariah focusing on the concept of apostasy. To put the study in context, the research traces the history of human rights in both the Islamic and Western perspectives.

This research study explored the meanings attributed by migrant Arab Muslim women to their experiences of childbirth in the UK. The objectives of the study were: • To explore migrant Arab Muslim women's experiences of maternity services in the UK. • To examine the traditional childbearing beliefs and practices of Arab Muslim society. • To suggest ways to provide culturally sensitive care for this group of women. An interpretive ontological-phenomenological perspective informed by the philosophical tenets of Heidegger (1927/1962) was used to examine the childbirth experiences of eight Arab Muslim women who had migrated to one multicultural city in the Midlands. Three in-depth semi structured audiotaped interviews were conducted with each woman; the first during the third trimester of pregnancy (28 weeks onwards), the second early in the postnatal period (1-2 weeks after birth) and the third one to three months later. Each interview was conducted in Arabic, then transcribed and translated into English. An adapted version of Smith’s model of interpretive phenomenological analysis (Smith 2003) together with the principles of Gadamer (1989) were used to analyse the interview data, aided by the use of the software package NVivo2. The analysis of the women’s experiences captures the significance of giving birth in a new cultural context, their perception of the positive and negative aspects of their maternity care and the importance of a culturally competent approach to midwifery practice. Six main themes emerged from analysis of the interviews: ‘displacement and reformation of the self’, ‘by the grace of God’, ‘the vulnerable women,’ ‘adaptation to the new culture,’ ‘dissonance between two maternity health systems’ and ‘the valuable experience’. These themes reflected the women’s lived experiences of their childbirth in the UK. The implications for communities, institutions, midwifery practice and further research are outlined. The study concludes that in providing culturally competent care, maternity caregivers should be aware of what might be significant in the religious and cultural understandings of Arab women but also avoid cultural stereotyping by maintaining an emphasis on individualised care.

The present study provides an understanding of how married, tertiary educated and employed Muslim females negotiate their identities across contexts within a multicultural environment, such as post-1994 contemporary Johannesburg. An additional facet of this study was to gain insight into the construction of Muslim female identity by the husbands of the women in the study. The commonly portrayed images of Muslim women are unflattering and ill-conceived and depict the Muslim woman as one who is veiled, oppressed, secluded and submissive. In South Africa however, Muslim women have been able to participate in secular education and employment opportunities and practice their religion within a democratic dispensation that is responsive to issues of gender. In order to obtain an understanding of the nuances that underpin Muslim female self-constructions and constructions by their husbands, the study was approached from a social constructionist epistemology. It is the assumption of the researcher that identities are thus in part created discursively, and for the purpose of this study, the constructions of identity of the participants were analysed using a discourse analysis methodology. Interviews were conducted with four Muslim couples. Social facets such as gender, race, religion and globalisation were used as topics in order to understand how participants constructed Muslim women’s identity. The Muslim women who participated in the study appear to inhabit different subject positions in their daily lives. The study highlighted that identity may not be fixed or stable, rather a function of relational or contextual positions. Both the women and men in this study emphasised an Islamic identification while distancing themselves from a cultural identification. The oppression of Muslim women was relegated to the realm of culture. In prioritising an Islamic identity the participants have created a space where they are able to construct an alternative identity for Muslim women that enables them these women the freedom to access secular spaces or what may be viewed as the public sphere of men.

Pesquisar sexualidade na religião é uma tarefa complexa. Por mais que exista uma tentativa de afastar a religião do debate sobre a sexualidade, é fato que há um importante entrelaçamento entre essas duas categorias. Em todas as sociedades definem-se as normas sexuais e delineiam-se quais seriam as transgressões, sendo a religião uma das instâncias de sua regulação. No caso do Islã, por estabelecer um código de conduta a ser seguido em todas as esferas da vida dos muçulmanos e das muçulmanas, inclusive no que diz respeito à vivência da sexualidade, sexo e prazer apresentam algumas especificidades. Para entender quais são as práticas, vivências e sentidos atribuídos à sexualidade neste campo, é preciso antes considerar as prescrições do que é lícito (halal) e ilícito (haram) de acordo com a religião, em seus próprios termos. A partir do diálogo com dez mulheres muçulmanas brasileiras revertidas e da inserção e circulação da pesquisadora em campo islâmico, serão tecidas reflexões sobre a concepção islâmica da sexualidade e suas implicações para o exercício da sexualidade feminina. A análise dos dados está apoiada nos referenciais teóricos advindos tanto da psicanálise como da antropologia. O trabalho apresenta que, apesar das prescrições existentes mesmo dentro da licitude do casamento, a prática sexual no Islã extrapola a finalidade reprodutiva: há um incentivo aos prazeres, colocando a satisfação sexual como um direito de ambos os cônjuges. Por um lado, torna-se crucial relativizar o clichê da mulher muçulmana sexualmente reprimida: diferentemente do que se pensa no senso comum, o sexo do ponto de vista islâmico não é tabu. Por outro lado, é preciso assumir que a sexualidade é uma arena em que o desejo convive e disputa com prazeres e perigos; facilidades e resistências; saberes e poderes / To research sexuality in religion is a complex task. While there is an attempt to alienate religion from the debate about sexuality, there is an important connection between these two categories. Sexual norms and their transgressions are defined in all societies and religion is one of the instances in which they are regulated. In the case of Islam, by establishing a code of conduct to be followed in all spheres of life of Muslims, including the experience of sexuality, sex and pleasure have some specificities. In order to understand the practices, experiences and senses attributed to sexuality in this field, one must first consider the prescriptions of what is lawful (halal) and unlawful (haram) according to religion, in its own terms. From the dialogue with ten Brazilian Muslim women reverted to Islam and the insertion and circulation of the researcher in the Islamic field, reflections will be outlined about the Islamic conception of sexuality and its implications for the exercise of female sexuality. The analysis of the data is supported by the theoretical references derived from both psychoanalysis and anthropology. This dissertation argues that despite the prescriptions even within the lawfulness of the marriage, sexual practice in Islam extrapolates the reproductive purpose: there is an incentive to pleasures, placing sexual satisfaction as a right of both spouses. It becomes crucial to relativize the cliché of sexually repressed Muslim women: unlike common sense, sex in Islam is not taboo. On the other hand, it is urgent to assume that sexuality is an arena in which desire coexists and disputes with pleasures and dangers; facilities and resistances; knowledge and power

From a Western perspective, North Americans and Western Europeans perceive Muslim women as being oppressed (Andrea 2009; Lutz 1997, 96; Ozyurt 2013). Led by this assumption, some view studying abroad as an international student as an experience that allows Muslim women the opportunity to "escape" this supposed oppression and to know "freedom" in the U.S. However, Muslim women's experiences are more dynamic and complex than this dualism suggests. In this thesis, I explore adaptation strategies of Muslim women international students, and how gender, race, and religion affect their experiences while abroad. Furthermore, I explore the women's use of emotion management as a means of navigating their experiences during their study abroad. Data consist of qualitative interviews with 11 Muslim women students from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Nigeria, Morocco, Oman, The Gambia, Kuwait, and India. Findings in this study are consistent with previous research of international students' challenges; Muslim women face difficulties with English language proficiency, new social network creation, transition to a student role, and management of finances during their study abroad. In addition, Muslim women international students actively synthesize traditional gender norms from their countries with new identity formations but also "police" others to ensure that they abide by traditional gender expectations. The Muslim women in this study learn and apply American racial schemas (Roth 2012) within a context of constructing the U.S. as a racial and religious paradise. Paradoxically, these women still feel the need to actively debunk negative stereotypes of Muslim communities. Yet, they still maintain connected with their home countries through daily religious involvement such as prayer and wearing the hijab.