Description: An intimate look at a fiercely controversial topic in contemporary Western culture and politics: a garment--the niqab, or full-face veil--and the women who choose to wear it
Brief description: Agnès De Féo is a sociologist and documentary filmmaker. Since 2008, she has been studying women in the Salafist movement in France and has made eight films on the subject of the niqab. Her previous work, on the Cham community in Vietnam and Cambodia from 2002 to 2012, has resulted in five documentaries as well as a book, Parlons Cham du Vietnam (2016).
Review Quotes: Agnès De Féo's thoughtful book explores a number of paradoxes. The French law of 2010 which sought to prohibit the niqab (facial veil) actually increased its use, as wearing it became a sign of resistance. Proponents of the law invoked women's rights and gender equality to impose a limitation on how women could dress. Niqab wearers insist that it is traditional, but its adaptation in much of the Muslim world and in Europe is a recent fruit of globalized Islam. By giving voices to French women who have chosen to wear the niqab, De Féo questions much of the conventional wisdom concerning Islam and its place in European society.---John Tolan, University of Nantes