Living Compound Marginality

Experiences of a Japanese Muslim Woman

Bibliographic Data

ID3580301
AuthorsKieko Obuse (0000-0003-1059-4183, Kobe City University of Foreign Studies, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume10
Issue7
Pages434
Publication date2019-07-16
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueReligions (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/rel10070434
OpenAlexW2959346031
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited14

The present article discusses the ways in which ethnic Japanese Muslim women are perceived and treated in contemporary Japanese society, through a case study of one Japanese female convert. It examines the complexity found in her experiences of marginality by highlighting three inter-related modes of marginalization: marginality deriving from being a Muslim, from being a Japanese Muslim and from being a woman. It discusses her responses to these discourses of marginalization and how she establishes her identity as a Muslim, through responding to them. The article first shows that ethnic Japanese Muslims suffer 'inverted marginality'-marginalization due to belonging to the ethno-cultural majority. It then demonstrates their experience of 'double marginality', marginalization by the wider Japanese society and foreign-born Muslims alike. It argues that their experience of double marginality has partly resulted from the absence of a self-sufficient ethnic community of Japanese Muslims. Ethnic Japanese Muslim women experience further marginalization when they become targets for criticism of Islam, such as that Islam is a religion of female subjugation-a notion of gender orientalism that deprives these women of their agency. However, the process of responding to these challenges of marginality helps ethnic Japanese Muslim women consolidate their identity as Muslims

Aesthetics · Criticism · Ethnic group · Islam · Islamophobia · Muslim community · Orientalism · Political science · Social science · Sociology · Anthropology · Asian Culture and Media Studies · Gender Studies · History · Japanese History and Culture · Law · Socioeconomic Development in Asia

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