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Introduction

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Muslim Women’s Political Participation in France and Belgium

Part of the book series: New Directions in Islam ((NDI))

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Abstract

The introductory chapter of the book establishes the background and the rationale behind the study of Muslim women’s political participation in France and Belgium. The chapter details the existing statistical information pertaining to Muslim political representation in Europe more broadly and is then followed by a detailed focus on the statistical rates of Muslim women’s political representation to reveal the remarkable rates of Muslim women’s representation in Belgium compared to the notably proportionally low rates of Muslim women’s representation in France. This information is juxtaposed with a brief discussion of the growing and intersectional discrimination or gendered Islamophobia that Muslim women in both cases, and across the globe, face.

The chapter also defines the key terms used within the book, including Muslim and political participation. The chapter continues to briefly discuss the methods employed during the fieldwork on which the book is based.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See Said, E. (1978). Orientalism. London: Routledge.

  2. 2.

    See Law, I., Easat-Daas, A., Merali, A., & Sayyid, S. (2019). Countering Islamophobia in Europe. Springer International Publishing. for examples from across Europe.

  3. 3.

    Although these figures put forward and adapted from Sinno, A. H. (2009a). Muslim Underrepresentation in American Politics. In A. H. Sinno (Ed.), Muslims in Western Politics. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. might not be the most recent statistics pertaining to rates of Muslim political representation, these figures are used since they represent a standardised cross European data set and therefore allow greater comparability across cases, as required in the framing of this research.

  4. 4.

    Figures provided for France in Sinno (2009a, 72–75) precede the increase in seats in the Sénat in 2011. The total number of seats across the French national parliament is currently 925.

  5. 5.

    Here and throughout the text ‘national parliamentarians’ indicates elected representatives from both houses in bicameral systems where relevant. Also, this statistic and all others quoted taken from Sinno (2009a) refer to the situation in 2009, figures in Belgium and the UK have since changed. However, based on issues surrounding the identification of Muslim parliamentarians these figures are selected as the basis for study.

  6. 6.

    Although many of these figures pertain to visible Muslimness, it is important to highlight that most Muslim women do not wear the headscarf or veil (Shadid and van Koningsveld 2005). Muslim Dress in Europe: Debates on the Headscarf. Journal of Islamic Studies, 16, 35–61. Additionally there is fluidity between wearing and not wearing ‘Islamic dress’.

  7. 7.

    The decision to consider francophone Belgium in the book allows for a more detailed comparison of seemingly similar cases; France and francophone Belgium.

  8. 8.

    Belgian ‘organised secularism’ is arguably the result of the combined influences of French secularism and Dutch pillarisation present in Belgium. The term refers to the comparable structure and organisation of religious and secular groups officially recognised by the state.

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  1. De Montfort University, Leicester, UK

    Amina Easat-Daas

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Easat-Daas, A. (2020). Introduction. In: Muslim Women’s Political Participation in France and Belgium . New Directions in Islam. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48725-6_1

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