Islam and young Bangladeshis

This anthropological study involved field research in Bangladesh and the UK by Santi Rozario and Geoffrey Samuel, along with a research assistant.

Overview

The project involved research with young people in three main locations:

• rural Bangladesh (a village close to Dhaka city)
• urban Bangladesh (Dhaka city and Dhaka universities)
• the Bangladeshi community in the UK (recent migrants, principally in Cardiff and London), through extended interviews and participant observations.

Further research

We are particularly interested in how young Bangladeshis before and after marriage think of themselves in relation to their future or actual husband or wife, wider family network and community, and to the role that both secular, Westernised images of the nuclear family and romantic love, and new forms of Islam, may have in forming their ideas.

Outputs

Rozario, S. (2011). “Islamic piety against the family: from ‘traditional’ to ‘pure’ Islam.” Contemporary Islam 5(3): 285-308.

Rozario, S. (2012). “Islamic marriage: A haven in an uncertain world.” Culture and Religion 13(2): 159-175.

Rozario, S. and G. Samuel (2012). “Introduction: Finding Muslim partners, building Islamic lives.” Culture and Religion 13(2): 137-140.

Rozario, S. and G. Samuel (2012). Young Muslim Women and the Islamic Family: Reflections on Conflicting Ideals in British Bangladesh Life. Women in Islam: Reflections on Historical and Contemporary Research. T. Lovat. Berlin, Springer: 25-42.