1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«S’appuyant sur des travaux de terrain menés auprès de convertis à l’Islam (France et Québec), cet article s’intéresse aux femmes qui sont en couple avec des partenaires d’origine musulmane. Alors que ces femmes s’engagent dans une union fondée sur une identité religieuse commune, elles sont confrontées au double défi d’apprendre à être musulmane et de transmettre leur identité à leurs enfants.» (p. 348)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
This article is part of a long-term ethnographic project conducted by the author in Québec and in France on converts to Islam. «This article deals with the total of 46 (out of 78) new Muslims who are mothers in [the author’s] data.» (p. 352)

Instruments :
- Guide d’entretien semi-directif
- Guide d’entretien non directif

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse de contenu

3. Résumé

According to the author, the «complex negotiation of Muslim identity within the couple hinges on the way converts frame ethnicity as a motive of heterogamy and mixedness. In French and Quebecois contexts, where the legal, symbolic, and social status of Muslim-background people, as well as local representations around Islam, tend to ostracize them, such views contribute to an ethnicizing of Muslim people and a reification of ethnic categories (Puzenat, 2015).» (p. 356) Also, «[w]hile the women’s newness in Islam may differentiate their legitimacy in the couple’s shared Muslim identity, they also affirm their status in the union by entering into a learning process of Islam that develops an ahistorical understanding of Islam deprived of local references and around which they build their authority in the family. This strategy for transmitting identity to their children highlights how recognition and legitimacy are central issues in mixed unions where the children’s Islamic identity becomes the best indicator of the women’s Muslimness. The example of mixed unions between female converts to Islam and men of Muslim background shows that tensions revolving around mixed ethnicities and minority status in stigmatizing contexts can be bypassed by transposing the process of identity formation and transmission on a transregional scale.» (p. 361)