Women in an Italian Shi’a Worship Hall

Is it legitimate to ascribe the term mosque to a hall that has become the headquarters of a cultural association? How does such a designation change the atmosphere of that place? Do gender relations undergo a change as a consequence of such a labelling? In a place that has gained the status of a mosque merely through people’s perceptions, how much weight do the behavioral norms established by ayatollahs carry? The present essay is the result of reflections on these questions that the author tries to answer through a sociological enquiry into a Shi’a worship hall in Turin. The data are collected through qualitative methods such as semi-structured interviews and participant observation.