Conceptualising Identity Transformations of the Apostate Refugee through Un/Learning

This article proposes an analytical framework of ‘un/learning’ to conceptualise the non-linear identity transformations of ex-Muslim refugees in the UK. While previous studies on leaving religion (apostasy) focus on populations in secularised contexts, identity shifts from Christian traditions and non-displaced individuals, this study addresses an empirical and theoretical gap: the lived experience of apostasy from Islam within the precarity of forced displacement. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 12 refugees who sought asylum in the United Kingdom (UK) due to fear of persecution for apostasy, I argue that ‘leaving’ religion occurs through simultaneous and iterative experiences of: (1) learning religion through everyday life; (2) unlearning religion through processes shaped by gendered, classed and political identities; and (3) learning non-religion, whereby participants develop new ways of knowing and being within the precarious context of displacement. By engaging with and extending the un/learning framework, I utilise rich original data to portray identity transformation as a (re)negotiation of learning, unlearning and relearning. In doing so, the study advances non-religion and asylum studies by revealing how identity is shaped through the overlapping pressures of displacement, deconversion and bureaucratic assessment. More broadly, this framework provides a lens for examining other contexts of identity transformation, such as those related to gender, culture or politics, where individuals must simultaneously unlearn inherited frameworks and relearn their place in the world.