Singing together every night :|novel forms of muslim womanhood in Turkey

Abstract

This thesis is a case study that examines how the cultural practices, engagement, and identities of young pious Muslim women are shaped as they build their own cultural settings within the context of Turkey's cultural and political environment. The study also provides a detailed account of how middle-class pious Muslim young women react, translate, as well as position themselves within the sphere they create as active participants by embracing contemporary political positions that are authoritative, nationalistic, and conservative in nature, as well as how they envision their middle class membership. This case study examines the formations that these young people include in and omit from their cultural production processes, which are marked by their relationships with their families, religion, and traditions, using as its subject a music group comprised of pious young Muslim women. The research also aims to examine how this musical ensemble reinterprets the politically charged, critical songs they perform, as well as the reasons and strategies they employ in relation to the religious community and audience. In doing so, the politically and geographically diversified repertoire of the musical group is analyzed in order to shed additional light on its political origins. The study investigates the extent to which individuals accept these conditions and how, by their active engagement in cultural production processes, they form their identities in the public space.