Impossible Futures: Why Women Leave American Muslim Communities while Men Stay
18 Jan 2023
Announced by the University of Pittsburgh:
Impossible Futures explains why Muslim communities are losing women and retaining men. Using a large sample of life history interviews with Muslim adults who grew up in the U.S., I argue that the community places its anxieties about cultural assimilation onto women’s shoulders, creating unintended pressures that drive them out. I avoid the trap of either orientalizing Muslim cultures by assuming that gender inequality is inherent in Islam or overcorrecting by ignoring signs of gender inequality among Muslims. Instead, I argue that gender inequality emerges from the structural and cultural tensions between migrant generations.
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