Forced Migration and Muslim Rituals: An Area of Cultural Psychology?

Authors

• Nora Ahlberg

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30674/scripta.67209

Keywords:

Rites and ceremonies, Islam -- Ritual, Rites of passage, Migration, Refugees, Iran, Norway, Psychology and religion, Psychic trauma, Emotions, Gender, Women

Abstract

The psychological foundation of rites de passage have long been debated within the history of religion and related areas. The significance of such rites in facilitating emotional readjustment to a new life situation have been particularly stressed. Emotional reactions on the individual level largely remain outside the competence of anthropologists, despite their awareness of the general influence of culture on this as on other areas of human endeavour. Focusing on traumatized female refugees from Iran, a critical question is whether the changing living conditions which have provoked traumatic experiences in the lives of these refugees have been in any way related to Muslim ritual requirements or rites de passage.