Racialised and cultural experiences of Muslim Somali Refugee women within an inner-city Johannesburg Islam Community

Abstract

This study draws on in-depth interviews conducted with seven Somali Muslim refugee women currently residing in an Islamic community in Johannesburg. A qualitative approach was employed to explore how racism, racialisation and culture impacts their everyday lived experiences. This thesis intends to unpack the ways in which Somali Muslim women negotiate and renegotiate their identities within the spaces they occupy. The exploration and analysis of their stories was accomplished by adopting intersectionality as a theoretical framework. Refugees are often faced with discrimination and oppression on multiple levels and their historical contingencies are fraught with insurmountable difficulties that are further exacerbated and complicated by the intersection of race, class, gender, nationality, religion and culture. This thesis intends to challenge and contest the idea of a Muslim identity and solidarity that transcends race, class, gender and culture and instead, illuminates the racial tensions and segregation that exists between African Muslims and South African Indian Muslims who reside in the same community. Furthermore, this study intends to reveal the internal fractures and divisions within the Somali community that further complicate and add layers of complexity to how Somali women experience their community along the axis of gender, tribe affiliation and social class status. These very distinct yet overlapping categories of identity shape and inform the everyday lived experiences of Somali women. Being a Somali Muslim women is often accompanied with feelings of trepidation, alienation, exclusion and disillusionment. Their stories reveal themes of perpetual pain and suffering, ethnic divides, patriarchal ideology and racism experienced within their Muslim community. Despite adversities and marginalisation, these women continue to find creative ways of surviving and display resilience and hopefulness for their futures. Their experiences suggest that religion is used as a means of coping and making sense of their lived experiences as well as their sense of self