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Contemporary Islam

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01-10-2011

Islamic piety against the family: from ‘traditional’ to ‘pure’ Islam

Author: Santi Rozario

Published in: Contemporary Islam | Issue 3/2011

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Abstract

One might suppose that a foundational element of proper Muslim behaviour is respect for one’s parents. However, it is not unusual in the contemporary Islamic world, both in Muslim-majority countries and in the diaspora, for young people to be much more ‘Islamic’ in behaviour, dress and lifestyle than their parents. As this may suggest, modernist Islamic piety is not infrequently directed by young people against their parents, as a mode of resistance to parental authority. However, wearing the hijab, becoming a follower of a Sufi shaykh, or marrying a ‘good’ Muslim spouse from another ethnic group to one’s own, are different kinds of resistance from, for example, joining an inner-city youth gang, or rejecting one’s parents’ Asian cultural background for a more globalised identity. I discuss some of the ways in which Islamic piety can be deployed in resistance to parental authority through case studies from my Economic and Social Research Council-funded field research in Bangladesh and the UK, and consider in what ways these forms of behaviour resemble, and differ from, more familiar forms of resistance.

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On our usage of ‘modernist Islam,’ see the introduction to this special issue.

The research formed part of an Economic and Social Research Council-funded research project, ‘The Challenge of Islam: Young Bangladeshis, Marriage and the Family in Bangladesh and the UK’. A central issue was the influence of modernist forms of Islam on marriage and the family. The project team consisted of myself as principal investigator, Geoffrey Samuel, Bulbul Ashraf Siddiqi and Sophie Gilliat-Ray.

I am not entering in this article into the question of what is ‘really’ Islamic. Our focus was on the young people’s own understanding of Islam.

http://www.hijazcom.co.uk/ (accessed 28 June 2008)

Lit. ‘remembrance’; a generic term for Sufi devotional practices, often centred around collective recitation of a prayer formula such as Allah hu (‘He is God’).

Tahera holds at least two regular meetings at her place, Sundays and Thursdays. She invites other Hijazi members, but tries to have some non-Hijazis from among her social circle. The idea is to discuss issues of relevance to young people of today, including not only religious issues, but practical issues such as marriage problems. She also has responsibility for mentoring some new Hijaz members.

Personal names in this article are all pseudonyms.

The burqa is a long gown, also covering the hair, rarely worn by Bangladeshis in the past but increasingly adopted as a sign of strong Islamic commitment. When worn with the niqab, a face veil, all the face and body are covered except for the eyes.

The UK higher school certificate examinations, usually taken at around 16 years of age.

Tahera told me that once she was asked to share an apartment with another Bangladeshi woman who had a boyfriend. Her parents had apparently thought it would be a good idea for her to share a place with another Bangladeshi woman, but she did not see how, as a pious Muslim woman, she could share a space with her.

At one point, we were discussing the issue of dowry and what her parents might give her during her wedding in terms of jewellery. She said in her family they speak in terms of 100 bhories, not the usual five or ten bhories (a bhory is equivalent to 16 oz), and not mere gold but diamond, platinum and so forth. But she said, ‘If I ever get married I am going to wear a black burqa or something of the kind.’ She had no intention of allowing her parents to show off their wealth through her wedding.

An additional voluntary prayer performed at night or in the early morning.

An Arabic phrase, literally “Praise be to God”.

On the issue of hijab, Rozia said her father was concerned that she and her sister would stop studying now they were wearing the hijab. It would seem Rozia’s father associated the hijab with backwardness, as is the common perception in the West.

Since that family visit to Mecca for the umrah, Rozia’s mother also took to wearing a scarf loosely over her head, a practice common with many women of this older generation, especially after they have been to hajj, and more so when their daughters adopt hijab or burqa. However, Rozia was very critical of her mother’s style of using hijab. Her mother did not cover her hair in front of her male cousins, which Rozia thought she should even if she has known them since childhood and she also wore short-sleeved blouses.

The Tabligh-i Jama’at (TJ) was founded in North India in the 1920s by Muhammad Ilyas (1885–1944). It now has a very large following in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, and substantial organisations in South Africa and a number of other countries, including the UK (Metcalf 1998; Mayaram 2000; Masud 2000; Reetz 2004, 2006; Sikand 2002, 2006). There were a number of members of the TJ in our wider sample.

The term mahram refers to close relatives and in-laws of the opposite sex whom one is not allowed to marry. For a Muslim women, they also define the group of potential male chaperones.

This ceremony forms a standard part of Bengali weddings in all religious traditions but is regarded by modernist Muslims as Hindu and non-Islamic. See Rozario and Samuel 2010.

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Title: Islamic piety against the family: from ‘traditional’ to ‘pure’ Islam
Author: Santi Rozario
Publication date: 01-10-2011
Publisher: Springer Netherlands
Published in: Contemporary Islam / Issue 3/2011
Print ISSN: 1872-0218
Electronic ISSN: 1872-0226
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11562-011-0166-7

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Other articles of this Issue 3/2011

Piety among Tablīghī women

Islamic piety and masculinity

Introduction to special issue of Contemporary Islam: Islamic piety and gender relationships among contemporary Muslims

Discussing the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) rebellion: non-Islamist women and religious revival in urban Bangladesh

Piety as a concept underpinning Muslim women’s online discussions of marriage and professional career

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