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Individual Advanced Research Opportunities (IARO)
IARO Alumna Examines Women and Islam in Bulgaria
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Dr. Kristen Ghodsee’s three-month research grant in Sofia, Bulgaria filled an important gap in literature by examining the ways in which moderate Bulgarian Muslim women who were raised under the Communist system with its insistence on the equality of the sexes, are either resisting or embracing the influence of more radical forms of Islam in the region. A postdoctoral researcher at Bowdoin College, Ghodsee investigated post socialist Muslim women resisting the importation of Wahabi Islam into southeastern Europe. Through in-depth interviews and participant observation, she researched specific shapes resistance takes today and if this generation of post socialist women are successful in their attempts to dilute the Wahabi Muslim influence in the region. Ghodsee found clear evidence of foreign Islamic influences in the region. Influences such as foundation money pouring into new mosques and for mosque-sponsored language classes and Koranic lessons, young men and women going abroad with full scholarships to attend secondary school or university in Arab countries who then return to Bulgaria with new Islamic traditions closer to Gulf Arabs’ exist. She also learned of more women wearing the hijab, and an increased number of publications targeted at Slavic Muslims. In 2006, Ghodsee plans to return to Bulgaria to continue her research and begin writing her book titled, “The Miniskirt or the Veil? Gender, International Aid, and Islamic Revivalism on the Edge of Europe.”