Gendered migration, gendered affiliations: a case of women university students from central asia in the Hizmet movement in Turkey

This thesis focuses on the experiences of migration, education and affiliation of the women university students from Central Asia in the Hizmet community in Turkey. Based on semi-structured, in-depth interviews, personal experience and participantobservation with the women students from Central Asia within the Hizmet housings in Turkey, this research explores how women students from Central Asia become affiliates of the transnational Hizmet community and how this affiliation shapes their experience of gender, education, migration, and belonging. How do young women from Central Asia become part of the Hizmet community and how do they experience and articulate their affiliation with the movement? How do the migration to Turkey and their involvement in the community affect their lives? How do they define and describe being a woman affiliate of the community? Asking these questions and others, this thesis aims to conduct a critical gender analysis of the experiences of women students from Central Asia and to fill this gap in the literature on the Gülen community. The ethnographic data of this research reveals the gendered daily practices of socialization and the role of family concepts in the migration path. The thesis aims to contribute to the existing literature on gender and the Hizmet community as well as to the literature on mobilization of women in religious and political movements in Turke