Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the varied ways in which young Sydney Muslims pursue and understand romantic relationships within and across the borders of ethnicity, community, and religion as well as their engagement with Islamic, ethnically specific, and mainstream Anglo-Australian norms of courtship.

Paper long abstract:

Based on research conducted among unmarried Muslims aged between 18-30 of various ethnic backgrounds in the vibrantly multicultural city of Sydney and its surrounding suburbs, this paper will examine the varied ways in which young Muslim men and women pursue and understand romantic relationships within and across the borders of ethnicity, community, and religion. Australian Muslims are subjected to stereotyped portrayals that characterise them as belonging to a repressive religion that overwhelms personal will and determines their relationships and life choices. Representation produces meaning and this interacts with power, shapes identities, and can influence the decisions that people make. The pressures that negative representations of Islam place on young Australian Muslims can impact upon self-perceptions, piety (or the public performance thereof) as well as concepts of intimacy, all of which then in turn influence the romantic relationships they pursue. Similar to many other so-called second generation migrants, my research respondents often blended a range of cultural beliefs and practices, yet they also told stories of temporarily adopting specific, situational practices that depended upon their emotional states as well as their perceived need to emphasise certain aspects of their identities in particular contexts. Starting with a brief examination of the various expectations my research respondents have of intimate relationships, this chapter will then discuss examples that illustrate the various ways in which some young heterosexual Sydney Muslims strategically engage with or resist Islamic, ethnically specific, or mainstream Anglo-Australian norms of courtship.