Anna Mansson McGinty and Abdur-Rahman Abou Almajd in dialogue about Becoming Muslim

"And you see people entering the religion of God in groups"110:2

Prophet Muhammad said that Islam will enter every house and will spread over the entire world.


EVERY year, more than 5,000 Brits convert to Islam.

More than half of those who make the switch are white – and 75 per cent are women. http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/woman/4769410/Meet-four-women-who-have-converted-to-Islam.html


Islam is the fastest growing religion in Europe and United States due to immigration and to some degree conversion. There seems to be a tendency of Western women converting in larger numbers than men. This has been noted by converts themselves such as sister Debra L. Dirks, the author of Islam Our Choice  2003 , which is about six different American converts to Islam, all of them women, who share their life stories and their journey to Islam, and sister Lucy Bushill-Matthews, who is an English Muslim convert and author of Welcome to Islam: A Convert's Tale  2008 .

Another study that looks at the phenomenon of Western women converting to Islam is Professor Anna Mansson McGinty’s ethnography Becoming Muslim 2006 . It's a great book, and if only the Arabic edition would be seen soon. We are looking forward to reading it.

I think it is necessary to meet her in this interview to tell us some about her great work.

Anna Mansson McGinty
Professor Anna Mansson McGinty is a joint faculty in the department of Geography and the Center for Women’s Studies at the  University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her general research interests concern identity, gender, and religion, Muslim women in the West, gender in Islam, Islamic feminisms, social and cultural theory, and ethnographic methods. She teaches courses such as Geography of Islam, Global Feminisms, Gender and Spirituality: Women and Gender in Islam, and Women's Studies Research and Methods.

Her book Becoming Muslim. Western Women’s Conversions to Islam is an ethnographic study on Swedish and American women who have converted to Islam with focus on identity formation, personal life-story, and their understanding of Islam. Her current research project "Gender Identity and Activism among Muslim Women in the Midwest" centers on the gender identity and political, social, and religious activism of Muslim women in the American Midwest. Looking at the intricate relationship of identity, faith, and activism, the project explores salient questions regarding contemporary expressions of Islam and Muslim sisterhoods in the United States.

McGinty came to the subject of Islam in the West after taking several classes in history of religion and religious and cultural studies. Despite the limited role religion played in her own life, McGinty became fascinated by the role it played in the lives of others. The interest in Islam and Muslim identities can be partly traced to her own personal experience of living in Baghdad for a year as a teenager. 

Readers of this dialog will be impressed by your sophisticated scholarship, and your nuanced engagement with these Muslim women. 

Q: While Islam has become a controversial topic in the West, a growing number of Westerners find powerful meaning in Islam. Could you elaborate on that statement?

McGinty: In my interviews with the female converts, I noticed that the way they narrated their conversion not only highlighted transformation but continuity as well. Previous scholarship on conversion has often placed emphasis on the life changing quality of conversion, the rupture of life narrative between before and after, and the experiences of the convert that suddenly they saw “the light.” Interestingly, my interviewees expanded extensively on continuity in life, the connections between life before and after becoming Muslim with respect to certain values and spiritual experiences. While becoming Muslim obviously has entailed a lot of changes both in identity and presentation of self in public through the donning of the hijab and other visible symbols, the women elaborated on ideas in Islam such as equality (both social and gender equality) and environmental awareness, ideas that always had been very important to them. Thus, I analyze in my book how certain salient ideas prior to the conversion have been reinforced and reshaped through the conversion, and maybe even triggered the conversion itself. In particular, I stress how the conversion is an ongoing process and by looking at the personal meaning assigned to Islam I attempt to show how each woman’s conversion resonated with particular salient personal ideas, needs, and quests, such as the strong belief in social justice and solidarity with the “Third World,” as well as the spiritual quests and longing for existential meaning and presence of God. The women also talked about the importance of family and community in contrast to what they saw as an increasingly materialistic and individualistic Western society. In addition, many of the women stressed what they perceived as the logical and practical nature of the religion. They found it appealing that Islam guides the faithful in all aspects of life. Another notion, which was featured in some interviews, was the oneness of God that made more sense to them than the Christian doctrine of Trinity.

Q: Through in-depth interviews with nine remarkable women (six Swedish and three American), anthropologist Mansson McGinty takes us into the worlds of these diverse women as they share their fascinating, complex journeys to Islam. How long did you stay and talk with them?

McGinty: Becoming Muslim is a person-centered ethnography, and as such a qualitative study focusing on the life experiences and narratives of a few women. I interviewed six Swedish women and three American women. Although the focus is on the Swedish context, I conducted the interviews with the American women while I was a visiting graduate student at UCSC. I interviewed all women, but one, twice, and one three times. I conducted in-depth interviews that many times lasted for at least two hours. Since my work only draw on interviews with nine women, I obviously do not attempt to offer a broader picture of conversion to Islam in the West or make any national comparison. Rather, my intention is to give the reader an in-depth look into a few women’s life experiences of becoming Muslim and what this entails in terms of identity and relationship with family, friends, and the surrounding world.

Q: Seeing Muslim women wearing veils conjures images of submissive, denigrated women. Some are outraged and perplexed by the idea that any woman could voluntarily become a Muslim. Could you elaborate on that statement?

McGinty: Well, the relationship of the West to the veil has a long and complex history. During colonial times in places such as Egypt and Algeria, the veil served as the battlefield between anti-veil colonialists and the national, liberation movement. Colonialist argued that the veil was an expression of the subordinate position of women in Muslim countries, and that through the colonial enterprise the veil would be removed, and as a result, the Muslim women would be free from their traditional and oppressive men and, ultimately, religion. Interestingly, as scholar such as Leila Ahmed has shown, colonialists used a “feminist” rhetoric, arguing that they would “save” these women. Maybe we see similar rhetoric being used by European politicians today such as the French president Nicolas Sarkozy when he justifies the ban of the face-veil in public spaces, arguing for Muslim women’s dignity and equality in the French Republic. The charged and controversial politics of the veil indicates how this particular religious symbol still features as the ultimate symbol of Islam as oppressive and Muslim women as victims, women without choice and agency, in the eyes of the West. The discourse of Orientalism is thus still prevalent; while taking new expressions, for example through notions such as “clash of civilizations,” Islam and Muslims are still represented as “the Other” and hence incompatible with Western culture and values. It is in this context that women who choose to convert to Islam, who identify as both Swedish and Muslim, and in addition voluntarily don the hijab, confuse and challenge problematic binaries of us and them, the West and Islam. Their choice and identity, and the personal meaning of the veil, problematize stereotypes and misconceptions.

Q: You mention in your book that some women said that they found that Islam allowed them to try out a new kind of femininity, Could you elaborate on that statement?

McGinty: I think this is a very important question. While the conversion to Islam is not merely about gender identity, it surely is a salient aspect and implication of the conversion. Some of the women I interviewed found that their conversion allowed them to elaborate an alternative femininity, or differently put, the conversion allowed them an opportunity to think of themselves as women in new ways. What I found particularly interesting here is that the Swedish converts would critique both Western and what they would vaguely refer to Islamic gender roles and models. They challenged the objectification of the female body that they associated with the West, but they were also critical to some of the gender relations that they associated with their Muslim husband’s home country, where women were designated to the private sphere, and were expected to act in certain ways. While critiquing both models and discourses, they formulated an alternative femininity which embodied modesty (by following the Islamic dress code) and their own personal aspirations whether this meant pursuing professional goals or staying home with their children.

Q: What do you see in negative ideas about the treatment of Islamic women, such as forced marriages, and honor killings, as a means to denigrate Islam, though these practices are not sanctioned by Islam?

McGinty: There are traditional practices such as those you mention, including female circumcision, which are in some cases being done in the name of the religion, but are not sanctioned by Islam if you look at the sacred texts. I see this tension between “religion” and “culture” among Muslims in the U.S.  Some Muslim Americans who I have interviewed stress that Muslims who come from various parts of “the Muslim world” need to realize that what they believe is Islam is really cultural traditions that have become integral parts of people’s lives. Unfortunately, some of these practices hurt the lives and status of women. Here I think of the important work of international NGOs and women’s rights networks such as WLUML (Women Living under Muslim Laws) and the Malaysian group Sisters in Islam in which Muslim human rights activists, lawyers, and journalists are advocating and fighting for women’s rights within the framework of Islam, and challenge certain interpretations of Islam and implementation of Sharia law. Furthermore, what is really important here, and this came up during a “Combating Islamophobia” workshop for journalists which I was participating in a few years back, is that journalists in the U.S. and in Europe need further education and information about Islam and Islamic practices so as their writing and portrayal of such customs are more nuanced and don’t associate them with the religion of Islam itself, which keeps perpetuating misinformation and false perceptions. This also seems to involve an ongoing struggle for Muslim Americans, the need to constantly defend Islam, indicating that “this is not Islam.”


Q: Let's go back to 1985 when your family went to live for a year in Iraq where your father was working as a doctor. Could you tell us about your impression?

McGinty: Retrospectively, I think that year had a significant impact on me and the directions of my research and professional life. Since I was a teenager when we moved to Baghdad from Sweden, I was old enough to reflect on what I saw. It was a very interesting year and I made friends at Baghdad International School that came from all parts of the world. We also learned to know a few Iraqi families, and got to see different parts of Iraq, a country with a rich and interesting history. It gave me early a constructive perspective of life, and I really think it triggered my interest in religious studies and anthropology. It has been hard to follow what the Iraqi people have been through since then – the war with Iran, the Gulf War, and the U.S. invasion of Iraq. I’m anxious to see the country take the direction toward a democratic and civil society, in which people, who have suffered far too much, will find peace and prosperity. 

Q: Your current research project "Gender Identity and Activism among Muslim Women in the Midwest" centers on the gender identity and political, social, and religious activism of Muslim women in the American Midwest, could you tell us some about it?

McGinty: Sure, this is a project that I started a few years back. I have begun fieldwork that involves both interviews and participant observation of a Muslim women’s organization that I have worked with in a university-community collaboration project, “Combating Islamophobia by Empowering Women.”  This project was the initiative of the Muslim women’s organization, and it involved a few seminars directed to media, education, and law enforcement. It served to educate the public on Islam, but also to create dialogue between different groups. In my interviews I’m interested in the women’s life stories with specific focus on gender identity. A few questions that guide my research are: What “Muslim” and Western” ideas on femininity and gender relations do they draw on, embrace, and/or reject? What does it mean to be a Muslim American in the post- 9/11 American society? How do they relate to the concept of “American Islam”? And, what kind of social and religious activism are the women involved in? Here I’m looking at the intimate relationship of gender, faith, and activism. What I have found interesting is that the women’s faith has triggered a particular outreach that serves to benefit not only the Muslim community, but the larger community as a whole, which also strengthen their religious identity as well as role in the American society. I also believe this activism will influence the debate on the role and leadership of Muslim women in their own communities and religious institutions in the U.S.     

Abdur-Rahman: Thank you a lot.

McGinty: Thank you for the interview and your interest in my work.