Modesty and Style in Islamic Attire: Refashioning Muslim Garments in a Western Context
Abstract
Ethnographic case study conducted among female Muslim converts to Islam in France and in Quebec shows how dress codes help to ensure the external embodiment of discipline and thereby reinforce the process of internalizing disciplinary practices. By interpreting Islam in a context where Muslims are a minority religious group, converts construct alternative religious and social representations of Muslim identity that accord with their own interpretation of the Qu’ran while simultaneously incorporating the Western background within which they were socialized. I argue that the strategies that they develop for wearing the veil and for integrating into their environment (family, workplace, etc.) make it clear that fashion, religion, and politics are interacting in multiple, creative ways
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Recommended Readings
- Jouilli, J. (2009). Negotiating secular boundaries: Pious micro-practices of Muslim women in French and German public sphere. Social Anthropology/Anthropologie sociale, 17, 455–470.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Mossière, G. (2016). The intimate and the stranger: Approaching the Muslim question through the eyes of female converts to Islam, special review The Muslim question, ed. By Jennifer Selby & Lori Beaman. Critical Research on Religion, 4(1), 90–108.Google Scholar
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