Questioning French Secularism

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

   PDF

2. Setting the Scene: Place and Method

   • Jennifer A. Selby

   Pages 1-27

3. “Hardly Paradise”: From Shantytown to Housing Projects

   • Jennifer A. Selby

   Pages 29-70

4. The Shifting Boundaries of Laïcité

   • Jennifer A. Selby

   Pages 71-97

5. Feminism, Femininity, and Laïcité

   • Jennifer A. Selby

   Pages 99-133

6. Marriage Partner Preference

   • Jennifer A. Selby

   Pages 135-167

7. On Being a Visibly Religious Muslim Woman: Piety and Polity in France

   • Jennifer A. Selby

   Pages 169-178

8. Back Matter

   Pages 179-241

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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).

• Islam
• law
• religion
• suburban
• cultural studies
• secular

“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)

“Combining rich ethnographic description and incisive theoretical analysis, Questioning French Secularism takes on some of the most provocative issues of our time: religiosity, immigration, Islam in the West, and gender politics. In her forceful yet nuanced account, Selby reveals why the French model for secularism poses Muslim women’s agency as a core challenge to the state. This engaging and highly readable book is a must-read for scholars and students pursuing research on religion, gender, migration, and nationalism.” (Chantal Tetreault, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Michigan State University, USA)

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.

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