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"--Provided by publisher.
Review Quotes:
"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)