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ISLAM and FEMALE IDENTITY H. Nermin ÇELEN Maltepe University 1 The person is under the influence of different external factors from the congestion on.These are sociopsychological ( mother –child relationship)and sociohistorical cultural factors. ,The factors like family types,child rearing techniques, school, social environment,religion, economy,politics,globilazition, modernization, law, media finally a cultural factors are the factors which influence and shape the individual from childhood to throughout the life. They help individual to answer the questions “Who am I?” and “What am I?” The answer of these questions give the hint about the identity of individual 2 When we look at broader perspective we easily refer to different identities to a person. Like Ego identity, gender role identity, social identity, collective identity, ethnic identity and others Personality is a Gestalt of these identities.One can not seperated from each other.Each of them has its own importance in one’s life. Before explaining the female identity in İslam it would better to define and give more detail information about the identities 3 EGO IDENTITY It is not easy to define ego identity but we may give dimensions of it. Like; Continuity, sameness, uniquiness. Interaction between biological determination, life time experiences and cultural environment of person shapes his/her ego identity That means Identity takes its roots from individual itself and also from social cultural environment. 4 Ego identity is partly concious and partly unconcious. Ego identity is a Gestalt. Our identity begins to be shaped from childhood by introjection and identification and closes its cycle during the time of late adolescence and young adulthood. Of course it is not the final position.It has a tendency to be changed because of different life experiences.( traumas like lotary winning,migration, loss someone, wars, eartquakes etc) 5 There are different identities in every domain the individual interacts. family, religion, ideologypolitics,friendship,career etc. These different identities come together and make the whole or the configuration ( Erikson,1968). According to J. Marcia there are four different identity statuses: Achieved, moratorium, foreclosed and diffused.They may be the same in each domain or may be different. 6 Main Charecteristics of Identity statuses ID Status type exploration commitment Achieved Yes Yes Moratorium Yes No Foreclosed No Yes Diffused No No 7 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE f % Achieved 63 75,9 Diffused 2 2,5 Foreclosed 3 3,5 Moratorium 15 18,1 Total 83 100 8 CAREER/OCCUPATI ON f % Achieved 63 75,75 Diffused 2 2,50 Foreclosed 6 7,25 Moratorium 12 14,5 Total 83 100 9 GENDER f % Achieved 53 63,9 Diffused 9 1,8 Foreclosed 6 7,2 Moratorium 15 18,1 Total 83 100 10 INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP f % Achieved 23 27,7 Diffused 47 56,6 Foreclosed 2 2,4 Moratorium 11 13,3 Total 83 100 11 RELIGION f % Achieved 62 74,7 Diffused 4 4,8 Foreclosed 9 10,8 Moratorium 8 9,7 Total 83 100 12 SOCIAL IDENTITY Social identity comprises the parts person’s identity that come from belonging to particular groups including age, ethnicity, religion and gender.The two important processes involved in social identity formation namely self categorization and social comparison. 13 The consequence of self categorization a member perceive similarities between the self and the out group members. Like attitudes, beliefs, values, affective reactions, behavioral norms, dressing style and other properties.They also use cultural symbols make them differ the out-group. from those are believed to be correlated with the relevant intergroup categorization. 14 The consequence of the social comparison process is the selective application of accentuation effect, primarily to those dimensions that will result in self enhancing outcomes for the self Specifically one’s self-esteem is enhanced by evaluating the in-group and out-group on dimensions that lead the in-group to be judged positively and the out-group to be judged negatively. 15 In group based identities , the uniformity of perception reveals itself in several ways: Cognitive, attitudinal and behavioral. Social streotyping is primary among cognitive outcomes. Researches have found that streotyped perceptions of in-group memebers and out-group members are enhanced and made more homogeneous by identification. The central cognitive process in social identity theory is depersonalization., or seeing the self as a embodiment of the in group prototype a cognitive representation of the social category containing the meanings and norms that the person associates with the social category. 16 Along attitudinal lines , people uniformly make positive evaluations of a group when they become group members.The researches have found that individuals who identify with the group feel a strong attraction to the group as a whole, independed of individiual attachments within the group ( Hogg & Hardie, 1992). The others have found that in-group identification leads to greater commitment to th egroup and less desire to leave group even when the group’s status is relatively low( Ellemers, Spears & Doosje, 1997) 17 Finally people behave in concert within a a group which they identify.Social identification is one of the prime bases for participation in social movements.In general we find uniformity of perception and sction among persons when they take group based identity. 18 The question” How and when do identities become activated in a situation?” is very important. The social identity theorists used the term salience to indicate the activation of an identity in a structure. The activation of identity in a situation allows individuals to accomplish their personal or social goals.Activition of a social identity is sufficient result of depersonalization.De personalization is the basic process underlying group phenomena such as social streotyping, group cohesiveness, ethnocentrism, cooperation and altruism emotional contagion and collective action ( Turnet at all, 1987) 19 When a group identity is activated people behave so as to enhance the evaluation of the in-group relative to outgroup and thereby to enhance their own self-evaluation as group members. This process is the maintanance and enhancement of of self-esteem.. The self esteem motive initially was thought to the basis in-group favoritism and ethnocentrism as well as hostility toward the out-group ( Abrams,1992). Self esteem and self efficacy ( control over the environment) are increased by self-verification which occurs performing a role well. If the person performed well in the role he/she would feel good, given the appraisals by others and their approval. 20 GENDER ROLE IDENTITY Gender role identity refers the roles of each gender have been acquired by socialization. Generally Females belongs to private area and society expects them to be sensitive, cooperative, compassive and warm. The psychological profile of labelled as masculine centres on assertiveness, dominance, competence and compettiveness. Man fort he sword and fort he needle she Man with the head and woman with the heart Man to command and woman to obey All else confusion 21 When we consider the gender role identity females have been always kept generally in their private area in Western world and in Middle East from the pagan time to industrial revolution. By urbanization in the Western countries ( migration to rural to urban areas) woman began to work which the male society permit for them.The wages are different from the males.Feminism movement increased against the sex segragation they wanted to take place in male dominated careers.Social control and socialization of youth in the past has specfic values and norms for gender in vocational socialization put the barrier İn preindustrilized 22 Socio-political-cultural factors which helps to form female Islamic Identity The concept of modernity refers to enlightenment, industrial revolution, individualism, equality and laisizm (secularism) thes eare the outcomes of multi democratization. Islamic behavior and hijap are outcomes for being against the reformism and secularism of Western world. Radical Islamic movement is the result of economic crisis based on globalization, political authoritarian (economic and political advantages of USA and AU) and urbanization ( migration from rural to urban areas for seeking jobs) Western modernization depends on industrilization, production and class conflicts. Western modernization refers to universality and decrease the differences. 23 Modernization in Islamic world means making changes in cultural norms, behavior patterns and gender role identities Specifically modernization have been perceived as female independence away from her traditional Islamic values in Turkey. They must be more individualized and more autonomous. and So they put the females at the centre of modernization process in Islamic countries. Most of the women in Turkey have traditional life styles and have traditional religious pratics and they are conservatives. Islamic society reshapes the muslim identity against the modern world by using females.Islamic world not only represent reaction to sovereignty but also propose a cultural modal and new identity paradigma against Western modernization 24 The formation of collective identity of Islam females is the result of interaction between secular females, İslam males and also within in-group.The females who used hijap mostly come from rural areas in Anatolia and have traditional families in which females put scarf. They differ themselves from tradition and internalized Islamic radical political interpretation.They are in differantiation process.They categorize themselves away from modern and also tradition. They create hybrid modal. W e may easily see the relationship between gender roles and political ideology. 25 Islamic female movement looks like a feminist and ethnic groups movements When the females categorizes themselves as feminists they feel secure and also sense strength in their identity. It is the same for Muslim females when they label themselves as Islam they sense the augmentation of the strength in their identity.Hijap of İslam female is accepted as the symbol of the self and islamic societal taboos against homosexuality, sexual freedom, infidelity and alcohol consumption because they are the refused roles.They are under the sovereignty of İslamic ideology. 26 İslam females criticize traditional Muslims and modernization and try to create new alternative system as in any other social identity they consider hijap as a symbol of this movement. They use new word for it TURBAN. Hijap represents the collective power of religion and politics. They read Qouran ( Koran) and learn qouran scripts and verses, they know about sociology and Islam history. They dont believe secularism is the proper for the İslamic policy and religion. 27 They believe that if they come together they will create political power in structured society and have social control over the others. They have brought the phenomena from periphery to the center (Cities). Culturally the cities are the areas which produce modern values and symbols Women who prefer hijap refuse to carry on passive traditional culture of rural areas. They try to catch opportunities of modernism ( which depend on their interpretation) in an active way. 28 PSYCHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS Generally a person can be think whole islamic females are under the control male islamic society. In some cases it is not true.We can talk about the double faces of the Money.First of all when we look at the history during the time Amavi and Abbasi empires and also in the first years of Ottoman Empire the İslam females have had autonomy and also have responsibility of commitment.These were the times the empires were living in their more powerful time. But afterwards they did not follow up the reinassance reforms and began to decline and experienced economic crises.The İslam males could not compite with Western world’s economic, technological and industrized renovations . Inferiorıty turn to rage against Western world but they could not show this rage against them ( the real target) 29 They used projection defense mechanism and turned to this rage feelings more fragile group… females. They are the group who were not physically powerful. So Males could easily put authority on them and transfer their rage feelings for females. It is almost the same situation for Afghanistan and Pakistan nowadays.In the novel of the “Kite Runner” written by Khaled Hossein. In the movie “Stoning of Soraya M.” Note:Dress code or cover the hair not show a bit of hair after puberty not always be seen in İslam but also in orthodoks christians and other societies you may read the novel “Eleni” by Nicholas Gage to understand the situation better 30 Then the İslam females experienced learned helplessness.They tranfer this behavior pattern from generation to generation.By the help of limited education and television they have learned what kind of rights which the females have in the other part of the world.As you know to change the technology is easier compare to change in the cultural values. To change the inferior position and to take the power was not easy. They are the natural victims They raise some voice but no one wanted to hear the voices.They accepted to cover themselves to take a part besides male population. You can see them in Egypt or Arab countries Tv channels or in hospitals etc. They create themselves a new social identity.achieved ego identity( by exploring the proper alternatives and made their own commitments) of them helped them. 31 “We cover our hair but not our brains” The females come from low SES families can not use this advantage. They continue their learned helplessness and foreclosed ego identity.In Iran for example there are three different cover styles The females from low SES totaly in black gown. Economic level also helped them to get decision. They choose to wear black gown and cover their faces with veil because otherwise they dont get help from the state.They choose or forced to be chosen. If they choose we may say that they make their commitments to get food for their homes. 32 In Turkey the situation is a bit different. According to sociologists as I told you in social analysis the Muslim females generally used to cover their hair in traditional way. The university students who come from Rural areas or small cities to the big cities could not adopt the modernization and feel alone . One of the most important needs is being a member of a group. They come together and follow up the ideology against modernization. They became the member of the group.They used hijab for the symbol.by this they differentiate themselves from others.That helped them to keep their self esteem high.They create a new behavior pattern and dress code. According to the research has been done with female İslam students put forward that they chose this kind of living with their free will and made commitments without the pressure of their families. 33 34 35 36 37