Everyday gendered Islamophobia: exploring ordinary attitudes toward Muslim women in Southern France

Abstract

Scholars have emphasized how Islamophobia is a gendered phenomenon that affects Muslim women’s lives in Western countries. Nevertheless, research has most often focused on public debates on Islam within the mainstream media or on the effects of State laws and public policies such as veil bans. Much less attention has been paid to how gendered Islamophobia is produced and practiced by ordinary people on an everyday basis. Complementary to studies on Muslim women’s everyday experiences and resistance to Islamophobia, one of the key features of this article is to focus on the position of the perpetrators. It explores the narratives and reasonings of people with racial and biased attitudes toward Muslim women, in the secular context of France. Drawing on an ethnographic study carried out in the southern French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (PACA) and 33 in-depth interviews, the article shows that attitudes toward Muslim women are framed in two main and somehow contradictory ways. First, Muslim women are categorized as systematically subjected to a Muslim patriarchy, through a process of racialization of sexism. Second, Muslim women are seen as active subjects, but are then perceived as agents of a dangerous proselytism. These categorizations have in common the fact that they place women under constant suspicion, especially when wearing the veil. Islamophobic policies and public discourses thus find active support among ordinary citizens, extending gendered Islamophobia even in places where religious symbols are not officially banned.

Keywords:

• Everyday
• France
• gender
• Islamophobia
• qualitative analysis

Acknowledgments

Some of the ideas in this article were presented at the University of Rennes for the international conference on the ‘Everyday Uses of Gender’ in the fall of 2018, and also at the 26th International Conference of Europeanists (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid) in June 2019. I appreciate the comments and discussions that followed these presentations, which helped me to improve my article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 As in much of the literature, I use the terms veil, hijab and headscarf interchangeably, distinguishing them from other forms of Islamic dress such as niqab or burqa, which involve more covering.

2 The ‘burkini’ is a swimsuit created by the Australian stylist Aheda Zanetti who wanted to offer women (mainly Muslims) wishing to go to the beach or swimming pool an outfit in line with their religious beliefs. In 2016, a series of measures was adopted in some French cities prohibiting access to beaches for women wearing this type of swimsuit and/or being veiled (Tayyen 2017; Khemilat 2018).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Félicien Faury

Félicien Faury is a postdoctoral researcher at CESDIP (Centre de recherches Sociologiques sur le Droit et les Institutions Pénales). He holds a PhD in Political Science (2021) from the University of Paris Dauphine-PSL and a Master’s degree in Social Sciences (2015) from the École Normale Supérieure (ENS, Paris). His current research examines how radical right organizations and movements find political support at the local level. He is also particularly interested in the study of anti-immigrant attitudes, Islamophobia and the politicization of whiteness.