The Egyptian Sisters Club: negotiating community and identity in a time of conflict

ABSTRACT

On the screens of televisions and computers in their California homes, the women of the Egyptian Sisters Club (ESC) have witnessed the unfolding of political crisis and the unravelling of certainty about the meaning of ‘home’. Drawing from concepts of diaspora and social support, the study explores how the ESC, an informal group of young Egyptian mothers living in Southern California, maintains cohesion in a time of conflict in their home country, and hostility towards visibly Muslim women in their host country. This qualitative study draws from participant observation, interviews and focus groups over a period of 9 months in 2014. Findings, largely expressed in members’ own words, suggest that despite heterogeneous perspectives and subjective motives, participants largely negotiate a prioritization of cultural values over political differences. This case offers insights into how local context and life stages influence how diaspora members adapt to contentious home and host country politics.

KEYWORDS:

• Diaspora
• identity
• social support
• group cohesion
• Islamophobia
• Egypt

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Names of participants and of the group have been changed.

2. On 14 August 2013, police and military forces ended the Rabaa and Nahda sit-ins (against the 3 July 2013 military takeover) resulting in the death of over 817 protestors: https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/egypt0814web.pdf

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California.