Questioning French Secularism: Gender Politics and Islam in a Parisian Suburb (Contemporary Anthropology of Religion) - Softcover

Selby, Jennifer

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1349585408 ISBN 13: 9781349585403

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016

Synopsis

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).

About this title

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.

Review:

“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)

About this edition

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1349585408
• ISBN 13: 9781349585403
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256