Everyday Conversions
Islam, Domestic Work, and South Asian Migrant Women in Kuwait
Seiten
2017
Duke University Press (Verlag)
9780822363330 (ISBN)
Duke University Press (Verlag)
9780822363330 (ISBN)
Attiya Ahmad examines the practice of conversion to Islam by South Asian migrant domestic workers in the Arabian Peninsula and Persian Gulf region and how these women's conversions stem from an ongoing process rooted in their everyday experiences as migrant workers rather than a clean break from their preexisting lives.
Why are domestic workers converting to Islam in the Arabian Peninsula and Persian Gulf region? In Everyday Conversions Attiya Ahmad presents us with an original analysis of this phenomenon. Using extensive fieldwork conducted among South Asian migrant women in Kuwait, Ahmad argues domestic workers’ Muslim belonging emerges from their work in Kuwaiti households as they develop Islamic piety in relation-but not opposition-to their existing religious practices, family ties, and ethnic and national belonging. Their conversion is less a clean break from their preexisting lives than it is a refashioning in response to their everyday experiences. In examining the connections between migration, labor, gender, and Islam, Ahmad complicates conventional understandings of the dynamics of religious conversion and the feminization of transnational labor migration while proposing the concept of everyday conversion as a way to think more broadly about emergent forms of subjectivity, affinity, and belonging.
Why are domestic workers converting to Islam in the Arabian Peninsula and Persian Gulf region? In Everyday Conversions Attiya Ahmad presents us with an original analysis of this phenomenon. Using extensive fieldwork conducted among South Asian migrant women in Kuwait, Ahmad argues domestic workers’ Muslim belonging emerges from their work in Kuwaiti households as they develop Islamic piety in relation-but not opposition-to their existing religious practices, family ties, and ethnic and national belonging. Their conversion is less a clean break from their preexisting lives than it is a refashioning in response to their everyday experiences. In examining the connections between migration, labor, gender, and Islam, Ahmad complicates conventional understandings of the dynamics of religious conversion and the feminization of transnational labor migration while proposing the concept of everyday conversion as a way to think more broadly about emergent forms of subjectivity, affinity, and belonging.
Attiya Ahmad is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at The George Washington University.
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction. Everyday Conversions 1
1. Temporariness 37
2. Suspension 67
3. Naram 101
4. Housetalk 124
5. Fitra 157
Epilogue. Ongoing Conversions 191
Appendix 1. Notes on Fieldwork 201
Appendix 2. Interlocutors' Names and Connections to One Another 207
Glossary 211
Notes 219
References 245
Index 265
| Erscheinungsdatum | 18.03.2017 |
|---|---|
| Reihe/Serie | Next Wave: New Directions in Women's Studies |
| Verlagsort | North Carolina |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 152 x 229 mm |
| Gewicht | 522 g |
| Themenwelt | Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik ► Allgemeines / Lexika |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte | |
| Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie | |
| Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Gender Studies | |
| Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Spezielle Soziologien | |
| ISBN-13 | 9780822363330 / 9780822363330 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
| Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR) | |
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