Gender, religion, and identity: Modernization of gender roles among the Bulgarian Muslims (Pomaks)

Based on an ethnographic research in a Muslim (Pomak) town in Bulgaria, this study explores the dynamics in the notions of gender roles within three generations. The results show that the modernization of gender roles among the Bulgarian Muslims is not a linear and homogeneous process and differs from other Muslim communities. Although the studied community was isolated for a long time during the socialism under the so called “Rebirth process”, the socialist politics for gender equality have predefined the ideas of gender roles among the second generation of women and they have been transferred to the youngest generation. By comparison, to a previous study of another Pomak community in Bulgaria, claimed to be re-traditionalized by the influence of conservative Arabic organizations, this study demonstrates that the need for ethnic identification of Pomaks has intensified two opposite processes in terms of gender roles in two similar communities and the economic changes are not a single dominant factor in these processes.