Veiled constructions: Conflict, migration and modernity in eastern Sri Lanka

Abstract

This article analyses transformations of rural gender relations and local patterns of religious consumption amongst female Muslim migrants from eastern Sri Lanka to the Middle East. Migration has led to reconfigurations of everyday practices within a unified and unifying pan-Islamic code of conduct. It is evident, however, that women are suc cessfully negotiating and recasting their roles by utilising those very same religious discourses and practices which attempt to regulate them. Migrant women in Sri Lanka use imported consumer goods and 'Arabi' practices as a means of empowering them selves. In this context, Islamic religious practices play an empowering and progressive role in migrant women's lives.