Negotiating Identities: International Muslim Women Students in the United States

• In Event: 3520 - Section on Race, Gender, and Class Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 4. Education

Abstract

The number of women seeking higher education from Muslim countries in the United States is increasing. The pursuit of higher education at American universities also introduces a new socio-cultural context wherein cultivation and embrace of newer forms of identity becomes inevitable. This often requires negotiations of previous identities that were cultivated in the course of their earlier lives in their home countries. This paper critically probes the complex entanglements between older and newer forms of identity among international women students. In particular, it will investigate the impact of new pressures of fitting in into the U.S society, while maintaining their identity as Muslims in their everyday lives. This study uses a qualitative approach that includes intensive interviews of twenty Muslim women international students. However, in this working paper, the researcher included data from nine female international Muslim students and intends to add more while also making more clear theoretical grounds for the topic. The research subjects for the study are enrolled in different programs at a university in the US. The results are coded and analysed through a thematic analysis of the data and respondents’ responses are presented in quotations. The findings show that students negotiate their identities at the religious/ethnic as well as gendered levels. They prioritize the values without losing their ties with either culture. On the one hand, international female students carry social and cultural expectations within a gendered gaze; they are surveilled by the Muslim and ethnic community members. On the other hand, they negotiate common stereotypes of racial and religious profiling of female Muslim students. Finally, the study provides important recommendation for the support of international female students in the U.S.

Author

• Shazia Safdar Ali, University of Missouri Columbia