Religion als interdependente Kategorie? Intersektionalität in Bildungsbiografien junger Musliminnen in der Schweiz

Abstract

This article presents the results of an ethnographic study on the educational biographies of young, religiously oriented Muslim women in German-speaking Switzerland. Using an intersectional theoretical perspective, the interplay of various constraining categories of difference in educational trajectories is examined. The intersectional category ‘Muslim woman’ – as argued based on empirical findings – significantly shapes the educational biographies of young women, acting as a powerful educational barrier in vocational education. This category emerges not merely through the intersection of ‘gender’ and ‘religion’ but also reflects the permeation of additional categories of difference, including ‘class,’ ‘migration background,’ and ‘race’. This article raises the question of the implications these empirical findings have for the theoretical examination of religion from an intersectional perspective. After a brief overview of the reception of an intersectional perspective in German-language religious studies and the presentation of a case study from the ethnographic study, it is proposed to conceive religion in educational biographies as an interdependent category. This proposal intendeds to contribute to adopting an intersectional perspective in religious studies to examine the biographical significance of religion in conjunction with other categories of difference.