Reconciling Local with Global: New Zealand Muslim Women Articulating Faith in their Lives

Abstract

This article explores the dynamics of personalised faith in the lives of minority and migrant Muslim women. Research that localises women's understandings of faith contrasts with the considerable literature that focuses on the transnational, politicised character of religion, as well as the discourses that examine religion as a form of gendered patriarchy. This article is a contribution to research that approaches gender and religion from a localised perspective. Drawing on the notion of ‘third space’, this discussion provides ethnographic narratives of Muslim women in New Zealand, focusing on four specific women. Each woman's story illustrates the significance of faith in her life, and demonstrates the unique, and interactive, ways that faith creates new meanings and interpretive possibilities in local contexts, as well as providing emotional solace and a source of coping with wider life stresses.

Keywords:

• Muslim Women
• New Zealand
• Islam
• Faith
• ‘Third space’
• Local
• Individual Narratives
• Gender

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to all of the women that participated in this research; your strength and faith is an inspiration to me. I would also like to thank the Asian Studies Research Centre for funding during 2005–6, as well as two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions.

Notes

1. This was explained to me as a personal sense of ‘reverting’ back to a way of living and practicing faith that was experienced as ‘natural’, or ‘preordained’, for the women converts. This notion of ‘reversion’ is a theme within modern Islamism, which asserts that everyone is born Muslim. See Haddad (2006) for a discussion of this.

2. Pseudonyms have been used to preserve participants’ anonymity.

3. This is part of the ‘Building Bridges’ programme, which is a collaborative relationship between the OEA and the Muslim community that addresses various issues and works on initiatives such as public awareness and encouraging dialogue and interaction with the government, social agencies and other communities self-defined by faith or ethnicity (Pio 2010).

4. Dawa, in the New Zealand context, refers to various practices by Muslims to encourage understanding of Islamic teachings within the Muslim community, as well as undertaking initiatives focused on creating positive public relations with wider society, for example, Open Mosque Days.

5. Pākehā is a term commonly used to denote ‘white’ New Zealanders.

6. Resettlement occurs in collaboration with state entities, community organisations and various volunteers, however, difficulties experienced by refugees include language literacy issues and employment availability (see Pio 2010).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Stephanie Dobson

Stephanie Dobson is a Professional Practice Fellow