Abstract

GARCIA LINARES, Ruth Jatziri. Methodological observations. A decolonial approach towards an analysis of women and Islam in Mexico. Inter disciplina [online]. 2018, vol.6, n.16, pp.137-166.  Epub Feb 24, 2021. ISSN 2448-5705.  https://doi.org/10.22201/ceiich.24485705e.2018.16.65638.

From the hegemonic discourses that the West has promoted on Islam there is a series of ideas that pigeonhole it as an oppressive belief system towards women. Is this true? Does Islam oppress all women who practice it? Is Islam recreated in the same way without any distinction like that in Saudi Arabia, in Pakistan or Mexico? This article reflects on the importance of understanding the practice of Islam in particular contexts. In the light of the conversion processes, we try to understand how and in what way the Muslim and Mexican women of the Islamic Center of the North reconfigure their religious and gender identity, not only under the tenets of Islam, but inserted into a patriarchal system that contains them before their arrival to this religious practice. To do so, we start with two fundamental ideas: the understanding of a universal and situated Islam and the decolonial theoretical proposal, in which we find an opportunity to adjust that hegemonic discourse that has been erected as unique and true and that places Islam as a religion that opresses the rights of women wherever they are implanted.

Keywords : Islam; México; conversion; decolonial; women; identity.