This original new work is the fascinating result of sociologist and documentary filmmaker Agnes De Feo's ten-year exploration of the phenomenon of niqab wearing. It is at once a groundbreaking study and a series of compelling first-person accounts from French and Francophone women who wear or have worn the niqab in France's Salafi communities. With the backdrop of the French government's 2010 ban on full facial veiling in public spaces, which itself has shaped the phenomenon, De Feo draws on her subjects' own words to show their agency, working against the cliches that often underlie public views of the niqab-that it is purely the result of masculine pressure, for example, or extreme religiosity or nationalism, or the submissive desire to disappear. Instead, she shows, the niqab is multivalent: women wear it for reasons that range from religious piety to the desire to rebel against mainstream society, family, or the rule of law. The reasons are complex, overdetermined, contradictory, or even inconsistent, but they are the women's own.
Despite being worn only by a small minority of Muslim women, the Islamic garment has nonetheless been a major source of intense political, religious, and cultural debate in France. Searching to understand, rather than speculate, De Feo chose to approach the people who wear the niqab, and to make them, rather the veil itself, the subject of her research. Her unprecedented study, based on more than 200 interviews, reveals the many factors-social, political, geopolitical, and psychological-underpinning a personal choice that is not always as religious as it seems.
The book ends with sixteen captivating interviews giving voice to stories rarely heard. With finesse and discernment, the author debunks the myths surrounding the wearing of the niqab, and sheds light on a practice subject to misunderstanding and prejudice, offering the reader unique insight. Challenging our preconceived notions and stereotypes about women who wear any form of Islamic apparel, but particularly the niqab, The Niqab in France introduces a group of women each with her own life story, her own share of personal struggles, aspirations, and desires, and her own claim to a certain place in society.
This work received support for excellence in publication and translation from Albertine Translation, a program created by Villa Albertine.
Auflage
Sprache
Verlagsort
Zielgruppe
Editions-Typ
Produkt-Hinweis
Illustrationen
Maße
Höhe: 229 mm
Breite: 152 mm
Dicke: 14 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-1-5315-0463-2 (9781531504632)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Agnes De Feo 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).
Lindsay Turner is Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing at Case Western Reserve University. She is the author of two collections of poetry and has translated books by Stephane Bouquet, Eric Baratay, Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Anne Dufourmantelle, Richard Rechtman, Ryoko Sekiguchi, and others.
Preface to the English-Language Edition vii
A Note on Terminology xi
PART I
Introduction 3
The Sociology of Niqab Wearers 17
The Niqab and the Other 35
A Reaction to the Ban 49
Conclusion 65
PART II
16 Portraits of Women Wearing the Niqab 71
Earlier Wearers (Before 2009), 71
Neo-Niqab Wearers (After 2009), 101
The Niqab: Refuting Common Ideas 155
Acknowledgments 163
Notes 165
Selected Bibliography and Filmography 171
