“I Try not to Let Such People in”: The World of a Non-Ethnic Muslim Woman in the Provinces

Introduction. The study is devoted to the ideas of non-ethnic Muslim women of the Upper Kama region about the social space around them and their place in it. Non-ethnic Muslim women are understood as representatives of ethnic groups that traditionally do not profess Islam, who have made a conscious decision to convert to a new religion. Content. The territory of the city of Perm was chosen as the research field, which is a multi-confessional and multi-ethnic space with a significant substrate of Muslims, both local natives and internal and external migrants. The study was conducted during 2023-2024 and was based on a series of semi-structured interviews, for participation in which respondents were selected according to two main criteria - those who converted to Islam at a conscious age and those who are the so-called observant Muslim women (fulfilling requirements for appearance and ritual behavior), regularly visiting the Cathedral Mosque of the city. The main research question of the article is what is the specificity of Muslim neophytes' ideas about the world around them. To answer it, the information received was divided into three blocks: statements justifying the reasons for the attractiveness of Islam as a religion for converts; problem points identified in the interviews that formed in the social space as a result of the conversion transition; ideas about what the structure of the world around them is for new Muslim women. Conclusions. The analysis of the obtained narratives showed that the conversion to Islam can be carried out both from a state of non-religiosity and by renouncing Orthodoxy, but in both cases, it is accompanied by a low level of familiarity with the new religion and inflated expectations of the new way of life. In the new confessional environment, converts face condemnation from relatives and friends, a skeptical attitude from “traditional” Muslims and a frequent lack of support from co-religionists, including in the family. The likelihood of disappointment in the new religious environment is directly proportional to the duration of professing the new faith and the closeness of contacts with co-religionists. The main strategy for solving communication problems is narrowing the circle of communication to the same new converts, rarely appealing to the ministers in the mosque and concealing the fact of conversion in situations where this is possible.