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Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, this book analyzes public discourses on secularism in France to consider how Islam becomes subsumed under the fetishized headscarf, how women's bodies come to represent collective identities, and how the activism and engagement of suburban Muslim women with secular politics is ignored.
List of contents
PART I: SETTING THE SCENE: PLACE AND METHOD Gender Politics and Religion in Contemporary France Fieldwork Context: Working and Living in Petit Nanterre Methodological Considerations: On Writing about Muslim Women PART II: 'HARDLY PARADISE': FROM SHANTYTOWN TO HOUSING PROJECT Migration to the Banlieues of Paris Religious Geography Gender Politics and Sexual Segregation Divisions Community-Based Organizations 2005 Suburban Riots PART III: THE SHIFTING BOUNDARIES OF LAICITE Secularism: General Remarks Secularism: The French Case Commissioned Secularism in Contemporary France Secularism: The Pork Affair in Petit Nanterre PART IV: FEMINISM, FEMININITY, AND LAICITE Femmes Solidaires ('Women in Solidarity') French Femininity: Stereotypes Gossip PART V: MARRIAGE-PARTNER PREFERENCE AND MIGRATION TO PETIT NANTERRE Journeys to Petit Nanterre Implications for 'Disfavored' Women Second-Generation Women Respond Implications PART VI: ON BEING A VISIBLY RELIGIOUS WOMAN IN FRANCE Continued French Colonialism? Feminist Critiques and Practicing Religious Women General Conclusion
About the author
Jennifer A. Selby is Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Memorial University, Canada. She studies Islam in the West, with a focus on secularism and gender politics in contemporary France and Canada.
Summary
Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, this book examines how contemporary secularism in France is positioned as a guarantor of women’s rights. Selby argues that the complex “fetishization” of headscarves in public, governmental, and feminist French discourse positions publicly-visible Muslim women in ways that obscure their engagement with laïcité (French secularism).
Additional text
“A thoughtful ethnography with appeal for researchers, graduate students, and undergraduates ... . Readers in this last category will appreciate the book's accessibility to those new to some of the theoretical discussions within scholarship on Islam, gender, and secularism in Europe. Selby weaves her references to theoretical debates into largely ethnographic prose that non-specialists will find easy to follow. Questioning French Secularism will be of as much interest to those studying migration and the politics of multiculturalism in an increasingly diverse Europe as it will be to readers studying Islam, secularism, North African diaspora, or social scientific approaches to religion more broadly.” (Mikaela Rogozen-Soltar, Contemporary Islam, Vol. 8 (2), May, 2014)
“The Canadian anthropologist Jennifer A. Selby’s Questioning French Secularism: Gender Politics and Islam in a Parisian Suburb provides a welcome addition to this literature … . This book is an ethnographically rich contribution to the anthropological literature on secularism, feminism, and Islam in France, and it deserves a wide readership.” (Sindre Bangstad, Religion and Society, Vol. 4 (5), 2014)
Report
"A thoughtful ethnography with appeal for researchers, graduate students, and undergraduates ... . Readers in this last category will appreciate the book's accessibility to those new to some of the theoretical discussions within scholarship on Islam, gender, and secularism in Europe. Selby weaves her references to theoretical debates into largely ethnographic prose that non-specialists will find easy to follow. Questioning French Secularism will be of as much interest to those studying migration and the politics of multiculturalism in an increasingly diverse Europe as it will be to readers studying Islam, secularism, North African diaspora, or social scientific approaches to religion more broadly." (Mikaela Rogozen-Soltar, Contemporary Islam, Vol. 8 (2), May, 2014)
"The Canadian anthropologist Jennifer A. Selby's Questioning French Secularism: Gender Politics and Islam in a Parisian Suburb provides a welcome addition to this literature ... . This book is an ethnographically rich contribution to the anthropological literature on secularism, feminism, and Islam in France, and it deserves a wide readership." (Sindre Bangstad, Religion and Society, Vol. 4 (5), 2014)
