The Niqab in France

Between Piety and Subversion

Agn S De F O

Translated By Lindsay Turner

208 pages, 25 b/w illustrations

9781531504649, Paperback, $29.95 (AC), £25.99

9781531504632, Hardback, $110.00 (SDT), £99.00

Simultaneous electronic edition available

JANUARY

Islamic Studies | Gender & Sexuality | Sociology

This work received support for excellence in publication and translation from Albertine Translation, a program created by Villa Albertine.

“Current and relevant, and informed by a sensitivity and awareness of the diversity of Islamic practices.” —NIMA

NAGHIBI, AUTHOR OF WOMEN WRITE IRAN

“Agnes 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

An intimate look at a fiercely controversial topic in contemporary Western culture and politics: a garment—the niqab, or fullface veil—and the women who choose to wear it.

This original new work is the fascinating result of sociologist and documentary filmmaker Agnès De Féo’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 Féo draws on her subjects’ own words to show their agency, working against the clichés that often underlie public views of the niqab—that it is purely the result of masculine pressure, for example, or of extreme religiosity or nationalism, or of 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 Féo 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.

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 question of the niqab. Her work on the Cham community in Vietnam and Cambodia since 2002 has resulted in five documentaries, as well as a book, Parlons Cham du Vietnam (2016).

LINDSAY TURNER is Assistant 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 Stéphane Bouquet, Éric Baratay, Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Anne Dufourmantelle, Richard Rechtman, Ryoko Sekiguchi, and others.