Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Nieuwe Moslima’S: Gender Discourse, Identity, And Conversion In The Netherlands, Jenna Henderson

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

My research looks at the discourses on gender in Islam and in Dutch culture as developed by female converts to Islam in the Netherlands. The goal of this research is to view the issue of conversion to Islam from the perspective of Dutch Muslim women, and to include them within the field of feminist research. In five informal interviews conducted with female converts, four Dutch and one Welsh, I discussed gender issues in Islam and in the Netherlands. I approached the data from two perspectives: Foucauldian postmodern theory and realist feminist theory on identity. I found that female converts critique …