**Author details**

sending old garments to her home country, she was engaging in a different kind of act from what her community would consider a 'proper' gift (i.e. the giving of a new garment, not the

This became evident when the interviewer discussed garment gifts with Khadija, an elderly Finnish convert who had a long history of being acquittanced with Finland's Somali community before her conversion. Khadija had befriended many Somali families through her work for the City Council of Helsinki, and the community had learned to appreciate her efforts for

Before making the garment, the women came to show the fabric to Khadija, to demonstrate that the garment she was to receive was new and made specially for her. According to Khadija, this is crucial for Somali gift-giving: it would be unacceptable to give a second-hand gift. This is why it is so fundamentally different to engage in charitable giving (of used garments) as opposed to personal gift-giving (of new and bespoke clothes) within this community. This garment gift had all those women who participated in the selection, making and presenting of it embedded in the object itself. A 'proper' gift must come with personality, with spiritual charging, and thus it carries with it connotations of the whole Finnish-Somali diaspora community, which Khadija, as a Muslim, holds especially dear. It is important to stress how this kind of gift differs from the garment gifts described above. Those are cheap, industrially produced garments that gain their spiritual value from the purpose they are meant to fulfil. They are far from the personal, carefully selected and prepared gift that Khadija received. Yet both kind of gifts come with sets of social connections and expectations, and effectively enforce and strengthen links and connections between individuals and the ethnic-religious groups of

In this chapter we have considered what happens when garments are passed as 'Islamic' gifts from one woman to another. By being rendered as gifts, such garments are symbolically charged in powerful ways. They are perceived not only as 'Islamic' and indicative of religious piety, but also as expressions of friendship, of the essence of the person who is the donor, and of the expectations and norms of the group to which the donor belongs. When passed between individuals, the garment-gifts create individual-to-individual, as well as group and community, bonds and a sense of inclusion and belonging, while also serving everyday functional purposes for the receiver. They draw symbolic community boundaries and establish alliances, inclusions and exclusions [25]. Bonds between the women of a particular family can be created and nurtured through garment gifts. Such gifts can also invite new members into a family and act as means whereby non-Muslims are converted to religious observance. These garments are essentially gifts of continuity, aimed at establishing long-term relationships

Khadija described the garment as 'traditional Somali dress', which is likely to refer to Dirac. This is a type of garment that Finland's Somalis would nowadays wear only in gender-segregated celebrations, if even there. Dirac 'is a fulllength, sleeveless, quadruple-shaped dress-like garment, often made of translucent fabric'. [24] It is the sleevelessness

and transparency of this garment that makes it unsuitable for public appearances of veiling women.

to show their appreciation.

their well-being. A group of women wanted to gift her a garment7

which they are part or which they have joined.

**6. Conclusion**

7

donation of second-hand clothes).

168 Socialization - A Multidimensional Perspective

Anna-Mari Almila1 and David Inglis2 \*

