Kazakh Women’s Visual Religious Identity and Islamic Agency on Instagram

This research study analyzes the strategies and forms of religious agency exhibited by Kazakh Muslim women within the social networking platform Instagram. This analysis is situated within the broader context of the digital transformation of religious practices that is currently underway. The authors explore the intricate interplay between Islamic norms, traditional Kazakh cultural codes and the global digital media landscape through the lens of visual content, social media posts, narratives and account descriptions of Kazakh women. Utilizing content analysis and visual analysis techniques, they examine the dynamics between these cultural elements and the representation of women in the context of digital media. The results of the study demonstrate that the Instagram platform offers Muslim women novel opportunities to express their religious identity, visually demonstrate piety and consolidate their position in public space. The authors determine the changing nature of the Islamic Women's Agency in post-Soviet Kazakhstan by analyzing the manifestation of religious and gender identity in social networks based on visualization. The research findings offer a substantial contribution to the understanding of the digital transformation of Muslim women's self-expression practices in modern Kazakh society. This work demonstrates the evolution of religious practices in the digital age and the innovative ways in which Muslim women are establishing new forms of agency within the virtual realm. The findings of the study demonstrate that the Instagram platform can be regarded not only as a medium for self-expression, but also as a space for the emergence of novel forms of Islamic women's agency in post-Soviet Kazakhstan.