Elif Büşra Kocalan

Microaggressions are subtle, mostly unintentional and not ill-intended but discriminatory or biased behaviours, actions or conversations that have negative impacts towards minorities, disadvantaged or marginalised groups. Even though they are not intentional or not ill-intended, due to their cumulative nature, they still can have harmful effects on those who experience them. These effects include emotional ones such as anger, stress, frustration, anxiety, self-doubt and depression as well as stress-related physiological diseases: hypertension and heart diseases. Therefore, they significantly impact the life of those who are exposed to them. Microaggressions can take three forms: microassaults, microinsults and microinvalidations. They are several types of microaggressions: racial, sexist, albeit or ageist, or religious.
Japan has approximately 150.000 Muslims. A majority of them are immigrant Muslims, and only %10 of them are estimated to be native Japanese Muslims. This makes Japanese Muslims a minority among a minority. Although both immigrant and Japanese Muslims are quite contented with their lives in Japanese society, Japanese Muslim women are easily identified as Muslims in the society due to their hijab, and come across microaggressions from time to time. This work is an ethnographic study focusing on religious microaggressions that Japanese Muslim women encounter during their daily lives in Japan. The data is obtained during the researcher’s almost two and half years of studies in Japan, Tokyo. The participant observation, semi-structured interviews and field notes data are analysed thematically to discover the religious microaggression types of Japanese women experience and their responses towards them. It is also aimed to see to what extent religious microaggressions have an influence on their lives.
It is discovered that Japanese Muslim women encounter three types of microaggressions: being mistaken as a foreigner, underestimation of personal agency and offensive jokes. Due to a lack of familiarity with Japanese society about hijab-wearing Japanese Muslim women, they are frequently assumed to be foreigners and approached in English, and this is the first microaggression, being mistaken as a foreigner. The second one is when society assumes it is their Muslim husbands or boyfriends who convinced them for religious conversion and for hijab as well, thus, underestimating Japanese Muslim women’s personal agency. The last one is offensive jokes: jokes on stereotypes such as terrorism and jokes on their mental health. These three microaggressions affect Japanese Muslim women’s lives in four ways: frustration, efforts to prove themselves, leading double lives, and last but not least, detachment from the society. The first step is getting frustrated. Dealing with daily assumptions on them frustrates them. Next comes more serious steps. Some get into an effort of proving their decision to be correct: showing the society the rightness and/or the beauty of Islam. Some, rather than dealing with the society, prefer to hide their religious identity and continue their daily lives as secret Muslims. They do not wear hijab in front of their non-Muslim friends, family and acquaintances, but wear it while attending to Islamic events. They do not pray openly and they find excuses for not eating non-halal. They lead double lives. Lastly, some, perhaps the most serious impact of microaggressions, distance themselves from Japanese society. They leave their jobs. They do not socialise with non-Muslim friends. Due to microaggressions they experience, they detach themselves from the society.
Microaggression is still a new discussion topic among social scientists and the public. Due to the suspicions of its nature or harmful results, awareness-raising activities are not widespread enough. Therefore, in order to understand migroagression and its harmful results better, and to create more equal and inclusive societies, it is necessary to increase the microaggression studies.

Bilim ve din ilişkisi üzerine tartışmalar her dönemde popüler ve ihtilaflı olmuştur. Aralarındaki neden ve sonuç ilişkisi, hakkında kesin ve net yorumlar yapmanın zor olduğu karmaşık bir ilişkidir. Bilimin din ve inançlar üzerindeki etkisi iki zıt kutuptan değerlendirilmektedir. İlk görüşe göre bilim, kişileri düşünmeye ve sorgulamaya teşvik eden ve deneyler ile kanıtlanamayan bilgiyi kabul etmemelerine, yani metafizik inançlardan uzaklaşmalarına sebebiyet veren bir faktördür. Diğer kutupta ise, yaratılan bir evreni detaylı bir şekilde izah ederek inananların imanlarını artırdığı düşünülmektedir. Bu çalışmanın amacı, doğa bilimleri üzerine akademik olarak çalışmanın kişilerin Tanrı inancını nasıl etkilediğini incelemektir. Çalışma nitel bir durum çalışmasıdır. İngiltere’de doğa bilimlerinin farklı alanlarında lisansüstü çalışmalar yapan Türkiyeli 7 genç bilim insanı ile yarı yapılandırılmış mülakatlar yapılmıştır. Bu mülakatlar betimsel bir şekilde analiz edilmiş ve katılımcıların d...

Discussions on the relationship between science and religion have always been popular
and controversial. The cause and effect relationship between the two is a complex one that
is difficult to make precise and clear interpretations of. The impact of science on religion
and beliefs is evaluated from two opposite perspectives. According to the first perspective,
science is a factor that encourages people to think and question and not accept the
knowledge that experiments cannot prove; thus, it causes them to draw away from metaphysical beliefs. According to the other view, science is thought to increase the faith of
believers by explaining a created universe in detail. In this study, the possible effects of
natural science studies on the belief in God are examined. The study is a qualitative case
study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 7 young scientists from Turkey
doing postgraduate studies in different fields of natural sciences in England. The interviews were analyzed descriptively, and common themes were developed from the experiences of the participants. In addition, previous studies were scanned, and they were referred to while interpreting the findings of the study as well. As a result of this study, the
following were identified: Although the rates of disbelief are high among natural scientists
and natural science studies may cause people to question religions and reject some of their
claims, these studies are not the primary reasons for radical changes in belief in God. On
the contrary, the findings of these natural sciences can be used to support both belief and
disbelief. Social factors such as family religiosity and being exposed to or witnessing the
wrong or abusive behaviors of those who claim to be religious and religious authorities
have a more severe effect on the beliefs of individuals.

Çağdaş dünyada sosyal medya, bireylerin dinî kimliklerinin oluşturulması, şekillendirilmesi, sürdürülmesinde ve ifade edilmesinde önemli bir rol oynamaktadır. Bu araştırmanın amacı, Müslüman olan Japonların yeni dinî kimliklerinin oluşturulmasında ve sürdürülmesinde sosyal medyanın ne kadar etkili olduğunu ve aynı şekilde Japon Müslümanların yeni dinî inançlarını beyan etmek ve açıklamak için sosyal medyayı ne ölçüde kullandıklarını incelemektir. Makale Japonya’da iki buçuk yıla yakın yürütülen saha çalışmasının verilerine dayanmaktadır. Nitel araştırma veri toplama yöntemleri olan yarı yapılandırılmış mülakat, katılımcı gözlem ve saha notlarına başvurulmuştur. Mülakatlar, kartopu ve amaçlı örneklem metotları ile ulaşılan ve yaşları 19 ile 81 arası değişen 32 kadın 30 erkek toplam 62 kişi ile yapılmıştır. Çeşitli cami, mescit ve derneklerin etkinliklerine katılmak suretiyle Japon Müslümanlar ile iletişime devam ederek gözlemler yapılmış ve saha notları tutulmuştur. Hedef, sosyal med...