"Man kanske inte ser ut som sitt namn" : En studie om fem kvinnors konvertering till islam

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study is to investigate a group of female converters and their subsequent experiences when transitioning to islam by bearing hijab. The study analyzes how this religious conversion has shaped and influenced the identity of mentioned women, as well as their attitude and relationship to the social environment prior to and after converting. This means that in accordance with the purpose of this study, an attempt to reveal the everyday life of these women will be performed. In order to make this study possible, three different methods will be put to use. A narrative method that touches upon the time leading up to and after the final converting and the impact of the conversion. A qualitative method that manages the interpretation of these women’s stories and lastly a hermeneutic method that allows further understanding of these peoples life world, identity, attitudes and relationships. The study has generated a number of different results; one result being that the religious converting to islam has given implications such as categorization and stigmatization in relation to the social environment. These negative structures are heavily reinforced by the act of wearing a hijab that carries a high visibility value. In relation to the social environment and the majority population and their notion of islam, wearing the hijab makes the bearer an anomaly, a “second grade citizen” with dark and negative attributes. The negative theme surrounding the hijab stems from the social community’s lack of information and misunderstanding of islam. The hijabs stigmatized symbol has a greater value in identification processes that occur in social situations than it does these women’s background and ethnicity. In essence, this has resulted in the fact that these women have now discontinued their majority status and belongs today in the muslim minority group. Consequently, the women have lost their right to majority status and as such been deprived of their identity in spite of several of them still experiencing a strong tie to the swedish identity. These negative structures have also affected the social environment closest to these women, who they today altogether not remain in. For this group of women, the converting to islam has still yielded a positive total change in the self-preservation of their identity that has enabled them deeper understanding in the pursuit of what is good in life and the revulsion of what is bad. This path of finding the silver lining, has made the loss of family and countless of friends much more bearable. This due to the fact that they contribute such losses to the old social environment that allows the outdated thinking that still builds negative structures; a structure that they hopefully have now distanced themselves from. In regards to their parents, the relationships have been open-ended and uncompromising even though the parents have in some cases been the very source to the categorization and stigmatization that these women experienced.