Questioning French secularism
Subtitle: gender politics and Islam in a Parisian suburb
By: Jennifer A. Selby
Series: Contemporary anthropology of religion series
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: 2012
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
ISBN-13: 9780230121010
Subjects: Muslim women; Secularism; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Islamic Studies; RELIGION / Religion, Politics & State; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural
Description: "Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, this book examines how contemporary secularism in France is positioned as a guarantor of Muslim women's rights. Selby 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"--

"Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in a Parisian suburb, this book examines how contemporary secularism in France is positioned as a guarantor of Muslim women¹s rights. Jennifer Selby argues that the complex fetishization of headscarves in public, governmental and feminist French discourses positions publicly-visible religious women in ways that obscure their engagement with laïcité (French secularism )."--
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note:; title: 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 * 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 * 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 * IV. FEMINISM, FEMININITY, AND LAICITE* Femmes Solidaires ("Women in Solidarity") * French Femininity: Stereotypes * Gossip * V. MARRIAGE-PARTNER PREFERENCE AND MIGRATION TO PETIT NANTERRE * Journeys to Petit Nanterre * Implications for 'Disfavored' Women * Second-Generation Women Respond * Implications * VI. ON BEING A VISIBLY RELIGIOUS WOMAN IN FRANCE * Continued French Colonialism? * Feminist Critiques and Practicing Religious Women * General Conclusion.