Constructing the identity of women in the context of conversion to Islam

Abstract

This contribution presents research which describes the social reality for female converts to Islam. The work is based on socio-constructivist and poststructuralist approaches. In the introduction, these are briefly described. The analytical and interpretive section, which was drafted using the tools of discourse analysis, maps the constructions of the statements of participants in three interrelated parts. The main goal of the first part was to identify the discourses and practices of actors leading to identity construction for female converts within the Facebook social network. In the next phase of the research, I analyze the statements of female converts with respect to the construction of their identity. The final section deals with the implications of these structures in social practice.

Keywords

• conversion
• religion
• identity
• Islam
• language
• discourse
• discursive analysis
• construction
• social reality
• "post" theories