Becoming the Other in One's Own Homeland? : The Processes of Self-construction among Japanese Muslim Women

概要

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This paper examines the ways in which Japanese women married to Pakistani migrants construct their identity as "converted Muslims." In doing so, it aims to show how the restructuring process of the world economy and the resulting movement of people across national borders affect the experiences and self-perceptions of the women in a local context. After describing the socio-economic contexts of the women and their married life, this paper will focus on their gatherings via which a new notion of the self emerges. It will then examine the ongoing process of redefining the self in a wider social context and the manner in which gender intersects with other differences such as religion and nationality in determining the trajectories of self-construction. The paper concludes that the process of "becoming Muslim" is not a result of the women passively assimilating themselves into "Pakistani culture," but rather the result of them actively negotiating their place within the often contradictory circumstances in which they find themselves.