Muslim lives in Eastern Europe : gender, ethnicity, and the transformation of Islam in postsocialist Bulgaria / Kristen Ghodsee.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ghodsee, Kristen Rogheh, 1970-

Series:

Princeton studies in Muslim politics.

Princeton studies in Muslim politics

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Muslims--Bulgaria--Social conditions--Case studies.

Muslims.

Muslims--Bulgaria--Madan (Smolianski okrug)--Social conditions.

Islam--Social aspects--Bulgaria--Case studies.

Islam.

Islam and politics--Bulgaria--Case studies.

Islam and politics.

Sex role--Bulgaria--Case studies.

Sex role.

Ethnicity--Political aspects--Bulgaria--Case studies.

Ethnicity.

Social change--Bulgaria--Case studies.

Social change.

Communism--Social aspects--Bulgaria--Case studies.

Communism.

Bulgaria--History--1990-.

Bulgaria.

Bulgaria--Religious life and customs--Case studies.

Physical Description:

xvi, 252 p. : ill.

Edition:

Course Book

Other Title:

Gender, ethnicity, and the transformation of Islam in postsocialist Bulgaria

Place of Publication:

Princeton : Princeton University Press, c2010.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Muslim Lives in Eastern Europe examines how gender identities were reconfigured in a Bulgarian Muslim community following the demise of Communism and an influx of international aid from the Islamic world. Kristen Ghodsee conducted extensive ethnographic research among a small population of Pomaks, Slavic Muslims living in the remote mountains of southern Bulgaria. After Communism fell in 1989, Muslim minorities in Bulgaria sought to rediscover their faith after decades of state-imposed atheism. But instead of returning to their traditionally heterodox roots, isolated groups of Pomaks embraced a distinctly foreign type of Islam, which swept into their communities on the back of Saudi-financed international aid to Balkan Muslims, and which these Pomaks believe to be a more correct interpretation of their religion. Ghodsee explores how gender relations among the Pomaks had to be renegotiated after the collapse of both Communism and the region's state-subsidized lead and zinc mines. She shows how mosques have replaced the mines as the primary site for jobless and underemployed men to express their masculinity, and how Muslim women have encouraged this as a way to combat alcoholism and domestic violence. Ghodsee demonstrates how women's embrace of this new form of Islam has led them to adopt more conservative family roles, and how the Pomaks' new religion remains deeply influenced by Bulgaria's Marxist-Leninist legacy, with its calls for morality, social justice, and human solidarity.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Illustrations

A Note on Transliteration

Acknowledgments

Introduction. The Changing Face of Islam in Bulgaria

Chapter One. Names to Be Buried With

Chapter Two. Men and Mines

Chapter Three. The Have-nots and the Have-nots

Chapter Four. Divide and Be Conquered

Chapter Five. Islamic Aid

Chapter Six. The Miniskirt and the Veil

Conclusion. Minarets after Marx

Appendix

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

ISBN:

9786612794896

9781282794894

1282794892

9781400831357

1400831350

9780691139548

0691139547

OCLC:

677987523