Conversion to Islam in Multicultural South Korea and the Struggle for Belonging: Korean Muslim Women's Perspectives

Dr. Farrah Sheikh

Abstract

This paper presents the first major ethnographic study on indigenous Korean Muslim converts documenting their struggles for identity, community and belonging. Conversion to Islam and subsequent inter-marriage with Muslim migrant workers, poses several challenges to static notions of Korean identities and this society’s multicultural future. To this end, I will present specific case studies documenting Korean Muslim journeys as they are racialized through their conversion trajectories including their marriage choices, first finding themselves unexpectedly otherised and finally ostracized. This leads many to reposition themselves as minorities, particularly in the case of hijab-wearing Korean women. By focusing on a Muslim minority community outside of a western context, this research will help to enrich the literature on Asian Islam and Muslim minorities, encouraging researchers to take a wider lens when discussing Muslims at the margins of both society and scholarship.

Biography

Dr Farrah Sheikh is a HK Research Professor at the Academy of Mobility Humanities, Konkuk University in Seoul and a Research Associate at the Centre of Islamic Studies, SOAS University of London. Farrah’s research interests lie at the intersection of multicultural discourses, identity and belonging, and issues of gender and race pertaining to Muslim minority communities in eastern and western contexts. As an anthropologist, Farrah’s main fieldwork locations are in South Korea and Britain.

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