(A2-22) Islam and Gender in Germany. On the (De)construction of Secularly and Religiously Legitimised Gender Relations

In most Western societies, the 1960s push for secularisation gave rise to a change of values involving an order of sexes conceived as equal, a liberal understanding of sexuality, and the rejection of a sexual morality rooted in tradition (and religiously legitimised). This development forms the backdrop against reservations towards Islam which – according to one current opinion – supports the inequality of the sexes. What is striking here is that the popular perception of Islam being misogynous and violent is in itself already ‘gendered’: while Muslim women are generally regarded as the victims of religiously legitimised oppression, male Muslims are seen rather as perpetrators acting on the grounds of norms of masculinity, legitimising violence which, in turn, are considered to be religiously valid.

It will be investigated how gender relations are renegotiated during the migration process, how the old orders – as in the case of honour – transform or maybe stabilise. Cultural and social orders, values norms and general principles are not conceived as homogeneous factors here but as practically and discoursively contested fields. Empirically, both the interleavings and conflicts of transformation and stabilisation and the emergence of new gender-related (male and female role) patterns among Muslims will be analysed on two levels:

Muslim families and social environments
Secondary institutions of socialisation as points of contact

The Project is part of interconnecting platforms E Differentiation and De-Differentiation and G Religion, Politics, and Gender Relations and coordinated project group The liquefaction and solidification of normativity.