Living Islam in prison : how gender affects the religious experiences of female and male offenders

Schneuwly Purdie, M; Irfan, L; Quraishi, MM; Wilkinson, M

Abstract

Addressing a significant gap in the knowledge of female Muslim prisoners’ religiosity, this paper describes and explains the gendered impact of incarceration on the religiosity of Muslim female and male offenders. Based on quantitative and qualitative data collected in ten prisons, including a male and female prison in England and a male and female prison in Switzerland, the authors show that prison tends to intensify the religiosity of Muslim men and reduce the religiosity of Muslim women. In explanation of this, the authors argue that, at the individual level, the feelings of guilt at the absence of family, the absence of high-status religious forms of gender and feelings of trauma and victimhood impact negatively on Muslim female offenders’ religiosity. At the institutional level, female Muslim prisoners, being a small minority, do not mobilise a powerful shared religious identity and chaplaincy provision—including provision of basic religious services—is patchier for Muslim women than it is for men and often does not take into account the specific needs of female prisoners.

Citation

Schneuwly Purdie, M., Irfan, L., Quraishi, M., & Wilkinson, M. (2021). Living Islam in prison : how gender affects the religious experiences of female and male offenders. Religions, 12(5), e298. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12050298

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 14, 2021
• Publication Date: Apr 23, 2021
• Deposit Date: Apr 26, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 26, 2021
• Journal: Religions
• Publisher: MDPI
• Volume: 12
• Issue: 5
• Pages: e298
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12050298
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12050298
• Related Public URLs: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions
• Additional Information: Additional Information : ** From MDPI via Jisc Publications Router ** Licence for this article: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ **Journal IDs: eissn 2077-1444 **History: published 23-04-2021; accepted 14-04-2021