“Ethnicization of Islam” and Headscarved Dutch-Turkish Students’ Identity Politics in the Netherlands: The Case of Amsterdam

Abstract

Since the mid-2000s, the complex relationship between migration and religion (Islam) at the axis of identity politics in Western Europe has received an increasing academic attention. This article, based on the first-hand data gathered through semi-structured in-depth interviews with 30 headscarf-wearing Dutch students of Turkish origins in Amsterdam, aims to explore the quest for the recognition of new Muslim woman identity with the headscarf in the Dutch context in the aftermath of 9/11 and the murder of the film director Theo van Gogh in 2004 by disassociating Islam and Turkish culture and themselves as “conscious and active believers” from traditional first- generation Turkish women.

Keywords

Headscarf, Islam, Identity, The Netherlands, Muslim Migrants

Citation

Koyuncu-Lorasdağı, Berrin, ““Ethnicization of Islam” and Headscarved Dutch-Turkish Students’ Identity Politics in the Netherlands: The Case of Amsterdam”, International Relations, Volume 10, No. 38 (Summer 2013), p. 57-75.

Affiliations

• Berrin KOYUNCU-LORASDAĞI, Assoc. Prof. Dr., Hacettepe University, Department of Political Science and Public Administration