ABSTRACT
The lives of youth in a globalising India, their relationships, transgressions and social and cultural negotiations, are complex, and studying this complexity in the field can be difficult. In the bustees one of the main challenges to understanding the experiences of Muslim youth, girls in particular, are the pressures and expectations that young women should (and must) behave in a particular way, especially in public. In the slums a young woman is expected by her family and community to be a ‘good Muslim girl’. The rules of the ‘good girl’ are not uniform. Rather the state, society and individuals are constantly writing and re-writing their rules of behaviour and performance. Within the slums there is more than one way to be ‘good’. Variables such as class, caste and culture are too complex to allow for a narrow idea of an ideal girl. Moreover for young Muslim women, religious identity does not create a singular experience or expectation of a Muslim femininity or a Muslim girlhood, as local and personal interpretations of Islam are diverse throughout India, and indeed the world. Rules are underlined by normative expectations of femininity in India and these intersect with, amongst other things, religious practice and local contexts.
