ABSTRACT
In departing from a case that I have called the woman whose father might have converted, this chapter explores the issue of hybrid religious identities as the issue crystallizes in relation to conversion and apostasy. first, I examine the issue of conversion and childhood, and especially the status of children whose fathers changed religious affiliation. This issue is further illustrated by fatwās in which jurists examined the religious identity of children who sought conversion to Islam on their own initiative. In all the cases involving children, questions of age and legal majority are significant and will therefore constitute an important part of my analysis. My reading will also introduce a comparative perspective by investigating how Christian theologians and jurists looked upon the issues of legal majority and parental authority. Second, I investigate the relationship between conversion and gender. It is noteworthy that in the legal cases that will be examined all the individuals who actively sought conversion were boys, whereas the person who had a religious identity conferred on her from outside was a woman. Is this pattern representative of a larger picture? finally, I discuss how the image of religious status and identity extracted from the legal cases relates to the main positions in the Bulliet-Epalza controversy concerning the true meaning of conversion, which was discussed in the preceding chapter.
