Dynamics of Religion and Gender amongst Young British Muslims

Considerable attention has been given to young British Asian Muslim identity in recent years. Whilst much of the literature has addressed the diasporic and transnational nature of British Muslim identity there has been a growing recognition of the need to address the national context in which this identity is formed. However, there is still a comparative lacuna of information about how religion features in the internal dynamics of this grouping, particularly the gender dynamics involved in the articulation of British Muslim men and women’s identities.This article presents extracts from discussions with young British Asian Muslim men and women to explore how religion is mobilized as a power resource in the construction of their gender identity. It discusses how the mobilization of religion is often ambivalent, contradictory and intersected with other social differences, particularly class.The article uses Bourdieu’s concepts of capital and field to explore the respondents’ interviews.