1. Experience of a particular identity: Religion: with me being Muslim
2. Issue of not only being of the faith of Islam which a lot of people have the general consensus opinion about, but more importantly my identity as a Islamic woman. Importance in family because all the women in Islam are viewed one way not many people met or know about Caribbean Islamic women and how they act or what they believe in. This is important because my family is Caribbean and Muslim which is a rare combination. I don’t like to be classified as the other “Muslims” but we each have our own experience that we bring and take from the religion.
3. The popular opinion is that Islamic women all are covered from head to toe, they are quiet and soft spoken. Most people even think they don’t go to school or have no education and just get married and make babies. This is because people think the religion forces women to always obey the “men” in the relationship.
4. The argumentative approach would be that not all women are like this that since the world is more modern now that women are voicing more opinions and being heard. Also that women are going to school and becoming educated. But the affective/experience of living through this is that this change occurred long ago not just now in this modern times. For example my mother doesn’t cover herself completely nor does she wear the head scarf, she is modern wearing “American” clothes, but she is Muslim. Which is strange to a lot of people because not only does she wear American clothes has two daughters that go to university that she raised not very “conservative” as the consensus opinion but also we have this “accent” or dialect of how we talk that people wouldn’t characterize us as Muslim so we don’t 100% fit in.
5. When you go to many Caribbean run mosques or events or meet other fellow Muslims that are scholars and they sound just the same as the “regular”/ “typical” muslims many people are amazed and asked where did they come from and are even surprised. Muslim women teaching in schools for example that can pray so well and many people are surprised. Or even for example me a Muslim liking music and loving to dance. Dancing which someone would definitely not characterize as a “muslim” thing to do.
6. C-lists of some consensus opinion of how girls of my religion are technically or part of this homogenized view supposed to act
A- Genuine and sincere affections on how this affects how I act; anecdotes from home stories on growing up as a muslim in the Caribbean; use of language or dialect to make it paradoxical.
7. (thinking still)
8. Sometimes when getting into the issue of who I really am I might start to discuss how I might fit more into this doxa because doxa is consensus opinion and might be easier to just go along that diverge
Belongingness 