Likes, comments, and follow requests: The instagram user experiences of young Muslim women in the Netherlands

Lale Mahmudova, Giulia Evolvi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

Young Dutch Muslim women often lead complex existences: on the one hand, they may be considered “other” to European culture and expected to conform to so-called Western values; on the other hand, they can be subject to scrutiny within their cultural and religious communities. This article explores young Dutch Muslim women's online practices by focusing on Instagram. By discussing the theories of third spaces (Bhabha, 1994; Pennington, 2018b) and composite habitus (Bourdieu, 1990; Waltorp, 2015), we investigate the following questions: How do young Dutch Muslim women use Instagram? What are the opportunities and constraints that they face when using Instagram? Through qualitative interviews, we discovered that Instagram helps young Dutch Muslim women express their identity in their own terms, but it presents negative aspects connected with privacy and surveillance. We then discuss the need not to generalize Muslim women's experiences and instead to consider their selective use of Instagram and heterogeneity within Islam.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)50-70
Number of pages21
JournalJournal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture
Volume10
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 6 Aug 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We wish to thank Dr. Isabel Awad Cherit for giving comments on the thesis of the first author, on which this article is based. We are also grateful for the feedback of the two anonymous reviewers. The first author wishes to thank Narmina Telmann and Aida Alieva for the constant support and spirit of positivity throughout the process of this thesis.

Publisher Copyright:
© Lale Mahmudova and Giulia Evolvi, 2021

Research programs

  • ESHCC M&C

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