Coping strategies among an intersectional group:Muslim women in Hungary

Abstract

As members of a stigmatised intersectional group, Muslim women in Hungary not only receive unwanted attention but also verbal/physical attacks, assaults, and hate crimes.What kind of individual strategies and collective resilience patterns have they developedto cope with or to improve the hazardous situations they experience? This paper utilisesparticipant observation data and qualitative interviews to study these issues. Two majordimensions of the participants’ strategies were detected: active versus Passive and Individualversus Collective. Exposition of these coping strategies was also accompanied bydiscussing the relevance of the types of reactions to threatened identity as suggested byBreakwell’s social identity theory-inspired model and Pargament’s studies on religiousresilience practices