Abstract
This study is based on ethnographic fieldwork carried out at a masjid (mosque) in Prague, Czech Republic. The primary focus of the research was the weekly activities of Muslim migrant women.
My aim was to understand how the sense of belonging of young women is shaped through interaction with their fellow community members. To understand how the sense of belonging is shaped in the context of halaqah, I used the analytical framework for belonging as provided by Nira Yuval-Davis (2006).
I attempt to chart the experiences of young women along various intersections of their lives like gender, religion and migrant-status during the course of this research. Through documenting of religious and communal activities like daily prayers, weekly gatherings, festivals, celebrations, I sought to understand how the young women negotiate between the inside and the outside world of the masjid.
This process of belonging was seen in light of different systems of migrant life- national, cultural, social. It was found that the act of belonging unknowingly turns into a political project (Mahmood, 2011) with the members of the halaqah creating a fluid space for anyone even from outside the community to participate, contesting the boundaries of "community of belonging," influencing their social position within and outside the community.
At the heart of it, Al-Firdaus masjid itself is the central mobilization entity which challenges and redefines the existing aesthetic of European urban landscape.