“Is the Headscarf Oppressive or Emancipatory?” Field Notes on the Gendrification of the ‘Multicultural Debate’

This essay examines the discursive contours of the multicultural debate in Europe, and the ways in which it is cast in gendered terms. It does so by investigating one particular albeit highly contentious issue, notably the headscarf controversy. In recent years, this sartorial practice has turned into an important object of debate and controversy in various Western European countries, often structured around the question ‘is the headscarf oppressive or emancipatory?’. Rather than engaging substantially with this question, or with the various meanings or significations of hijab as a sartorial p... Mehr ...