“I feel like we skipped a social class”: The role of social class in the hijra of Dutch and Flemish Muslim women to Morocco

Abstract

This article examines the role of social class in the hijra (Islamic migration) of Dutch and Flemish Muslim women (born and converted) to Morocco. Through an ethnography of their home-making practices, I argue that analyzing social class is crucial to understanding their migration and religious transformation. Unlike previous intersectional studies underexploring social class, I show how my interlocutors’ shifting socioeconomic status, informed by race, gender, and religion, significantly influenced their migratory experiences. This includes motivations for migration, perceptions of Moroccan society, and the (re)acquisition of white privilege. I argue that hijra, as a transformative religious act of mobility, both emerges from and reshapes their class status through underlying mechanisms of “coloniality.” By tracing their narratives and practices of furnishing and food, I highlight the importance of including social class in analyzing hijra and, more broadly, as a key element in intersectional approaches of migration and religious change.