Sifting, Negotiating and Remaking Religious Identities: A Redefining of Lived Religion among Muslim Migrant Women
Dr Nicole Stirling, Dr Sylvie Shaw, Dr Patricia Short

Abstract
The concept of lived religion is used to describe the way religion is lived out amongst migrant Muslim women in Brisbane, Australia and provides a new lens in viewing the concept of lived religion among diasporic Muslim women in the Western world. The Turkish and Iranian women in this study discuss the way they have adapted to life in a secular country, and how this has influenced their religious beliefs and practices. In some cases, as the women have adjusted to the new society, they have become more religious, attending the mosque and being involved in religious and cultural affairs, while others have shifted their religious understandings through devising their Islamic practice to suit themselves, or changing or blending their religious involvement. Some have become more secular, some spiritual, while others blend Islam with Christianity or New Age beliefs. We term this process “sifting, negotiating and remaking” their religious identities and their lives. Using the framework of lived religion, we show how the women have adapted their Muslim practices to suit their changed circumstances, or have embraced new forms of religious expression, and how they live out these changes in their daily lives.

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