Why Do Russian Women Convert to Islam?
Why Do Russian Women Convert to Islam?

Summary/Abstract: The believers in Islam living in the Russian Federation are conventionally divided into two groups: autochthonous and immigrants. The first group includes Tatars and Bashkirs inhabiting Tatarstan, Bashkiria, the Volga Region, southern Ural, Siberia, and Moscow. The second Muslim zone in Russia is the northern Caucasus. Migrant Muslims are mostly incoming from neighboring states, former republics of the USSR. Their presence in Russia is based on economic grounds. Along with the abovementioned ethnic Russian Muslims, there are also Russians of Slavic origin, who have converted to Islam for various reasons. The article discusses the motivations of Russian (Slavic) females converting to Islam. The analysis is based on the quantitative and qualitative content of messages posted on two web forums: Evimturkiye.com, in a thread entitled Change of confession. I adopted Islam; and forumok.ru, in the thread A woman in Islam. The author makes an attempt to answer the question of why Russian women convert to Islam.

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