These contradictions nowadays create conflict be-
tween generations and genders.
Breaking free from their role is also a difficult
task for men. In Muslim families, males are still
socialized to practice their superiority over women
and their right to control them as a given fact.
Protected and always defended by their mothers,
they have more freedom than their sisters or
cousins, particularly regarding sex. In case of a
mixed marriage, the family, though displeased,
does not banish the male, as they would his sister.
Male authority derives also from the duty to sus-
tain wife and family. Losing jobs, for the fathers
who are first generation immigrants, or having
difficulty in finding jobs, for their sons (in France
the unemployment rate of North Africans aged
between 20 and 29 is 40 percent, twice the national
average), contribute to the weakening of gender
hierarchy. The instability of male identity, faced
with both contradictory family expectations and
indirect social discrimination in many European
societies, gives rise to humiliation and frustration,
which result in rising alcoholism, forms of de-
viance, and the kind of control, sometimes violent,
enforced on daughters, mothers, and sisters.
Women do not question one of the fundamental
conceptions of their culture: the pre-eminence of
the mother role above all others, which often delays
in time, or relegates to a secondary position, the
choice of profession for many. For most women,
motherhood remains an unavoidable and non-
negotiable step on their way to identification and
affirmation on a personal level, and to contribution
on a community level. The priority of motherhood
does not at all exclude a general tendency toward
fewer births. For women, the ideal number of chil-
dren (2 or 3 at most) is a sign of the decrease in
fertility rates, both in Muslim societies and in dias-
pora communities.
Regarding work, the traditional family model
considers salary as a male prerogative. Female
work is seen as an additional income. Only widows
and divorcees need to work, if they do not have a
brother, an adult son, or a generous brother-in-law
on whom they can count. Work is appreciated as an
economic contribution to the needs of the family, as
an agent of external socialization and personal
growth, but it is still not considered as rewarding
and gratifying as dedication to raising and educat-
ing the children. However, the paths chosen by
socialized women in the diaspora or by the increas-
ing number of women who come to Europe on their
own, progressively show an autonomous choice to
attempt to conciliate working life with the primary
value of motherhood. Women prefer independent152 family relations
jobs, which gratify them and give them the possi-
bility to freely organize their working time.
Women’s demands do not appear to be caused
from the outside, by the sole comparison with
European family models; they are born of the inte-
riorization of religious norms that coincide with the
identity of women and their gender role; in brief,
from the heart of Islam itself, where the principles
of justice and equality lead all conduct.
Not all women are able to find their way between
what is written in the Qur±àn and what has been
enforced by social tradition, under the control of
men. Many, however, make a clear distinction
between religious law and traditional customs. It is
therefore to be expected that the means by which
women will be able to shake the foundations of
both patriarchal and theological hegemony, hence
modifying their social status, will be renewal of reli-
gious interpretation (ijtihàd) itself. Only through
critical work on Islamic law and a growing capabil-
ity of mastering Qur±ànic tradition, combined with
secular knowledge acquired in European universi-
ties, will women be able to breach the normative
orthodoxy of learned Islam, which has always been
reserved for and governed by men. There is a long
way to go, but that breach can hardly be closed. In
the words of Nouria, a young Turkish girl of 17,
“When I discovered my religious sources and was
finally able to study them, I realized that Islam gave
me rights my father was denying me: the possibility
to study, my assent to the choice of my husband,
who does not necessarily have to be a Turk... This
brought revolution to our home; I finally had argu-
ments not to let them run my life...I managed to
enforce my values without having to suffer for them
in an institution, as my elder sister had been forced
to do” (Bouzar 2003, 46).
Young women are progressively retrieving gen-
der identity through the prism of religion. They no
longer want to marry a “Muslim in tradition,” but
a “Muslim in heart.” Polysemous usage of the ™ijàb
is another example of this autonomy of conduct: by
choosing or refusing to wear it, women express a
demand for individual and plural interpretation of
religious practice. Women have begun to challenge
the principle of their submission, which they do not
find in the spirit of the Qur±àn. They are aware of
the role they may play in the future if they manage
to act on the content of religious transmission, and
thus on the transformation of family roles.Bibliography
L. Ahmed, Women and gender in Islam. Historical roots
of a modern debate, New Haven, Conn. 1992.
L. Babès and T. Oubrou, Loi d’Allah, loi des hommes,
Paris 2002.