Muslim women in Poland and Lithuania. Tatar tradition, religious practice, hijab and marriage
ENMuslim women in Poland and Lithuania are not numerous, because Muslims constitute only a small percentage of the total Polish and Lithuanian population. The population of Muslims in Poland is estimated at about 25-35 thousand, which represents 0.07-0.09 % of the total population of Poland (Nalborczyk 2006, 62). In Lithuania, according to the national census in 2001, there were 2,860 Muslims, and they account for 0.08 % of the country’s population (Statistics Lithuania 2005). However, Polish and Lithuanian Muslim women form a very interesting and quite specific group when contrasted with Muslim women of other European countries. First of all, they can be divided into two groups. The first group consists of Tatar women, who are born Muslim, and the second of convert Muslim women, who are the wives and of daughters of Muslim immigrants, the latter born Muslim. The two groups differ, in most cases, in their outlook on the place of a woman in religion and marriage and whether it is necessary for Muslim women to wear a headscarf (that is some kind of hijab). Moreover, there are differences in their outlook on the functioning of religion in society. The second group of Muslim women, that is, the wives and daughters of immigrants, who in Poland and Lithuania are predominantly of Arab origin, do not differ greatly from their counterparts in other European countries, including the Western ones, in their attitude towards Islam. Tatar women, however, are a unique group. Their contemporary life, their present way of functioning in the religious community and their opinions are influenced by the past history of the presence of Tatar Muslims in Polish and Lithuanian territories, as well as by their social situation.
