remain under the very strong influence of the fam-
ily structure. Time changes the situation for many.
For the most part, the first category is composed of
women who arrived when very young or who were
born in the European countries where their parents
decided to move. The situation is quite different for
those women arriving in their twenties as the first
of their family to migrate. This is particularly true
of the young Muslim women who continue to be
brought from the country of origin to be married to
young Muslim men already living in Europe. At
first glance, this may appear from a sociological
perspective to be a matrimonial strategy imple-
mented to obtain access to new positions through
physical and social mobility. Recent qualitative
studies conducted among young Muslim girls from
Turkey, however, have demonstrated that in terms
of personal autonomy and in particular of contact
with European societies, the circumstances of these
women are highly dependent on their educational
skills, as well as their ability to construct their own
autonomy vis-à-vis the family.
Another issue is that of the collective visibility of
Muslim women in the public space in Europe. Here
the discussion relates to many issues. The first level
is a political one: no Western European country
forbids women to participate in political life, either
as a political candidate or as a voter. Once they
acquire citizenship in the European country in
which they live, Muslim women benefit from this
right. The situation is again different for Muslim
women who are not European citizens. The second
level is that of religious organizations. In most
European countries, Muslims are organized in
associations that provide a range of different activ-
ities, either related to religious practices and educa-
tion (mosques, praying rooms, Qur±àn courses), or
oriented toward social and even economic activities
(sports, halal business, library, women’s groups,
schools, and so on). As in many other associations,
women are underrepresented, with the exception of
women’s groups oriented to specific activities,
mostly related to the education of children. This is
also the case with the internal membership on
boards of directors or steering committees of
national Muslim federations in many countries. At
a third level, if we remain in the realm of religious
authorities and observe the composition of the var-
ious structures that function as the national partner
of a state, very few women can be found. It seems
nevertheless that a general movement toward em-
powerment of Muslim women in these religious cir-
cles is emerging. This empowerment is often based
on new skills in Islamic knowledge (Jonker 2003)
and on a growing familiarity with European ideals
western europe 187and principles of gender equality (Roald 2001).
Finally, we must note the opportunities that resi-
dence in Western Europe may have given to women
that would not have have been available to them in
most Muslim societies. Western European coun-
tries present an ambiguous face. On the one hand,
for women coming from Muslim societies where
certain religious signs such as headscarves are per-
ceived as highly political and therefore strongly
controlled or forbidden (as in Turkey and Tunisia),
European countries represent places of freedom
where praying or walking with a veil in the street is
not a problem. This idea of Europe as a space of
religious freedom is mostly true for countries where
religion and politics have found an institutional
way of coping with each other. The United King-
dom, Italy, and Germany are perhaps the most
obvious cases. In contrast, some limits to this reli-
gious freedom may appear and open up highly con-
troversial discussions when it comes to recognizing
the individual’s right to wear a headscarf at school,
at work, or on an ID card. Here again, national
political cultures and the way the “neutrality” of
the state is articulated with regard to religious plu-
ralism have to be considered in a historical per-
spective to understand why this topic is so difficult
to manage in some contexts, while in others it is
rather smoothly discussed. The wish to wear the
veil in daily life emerged at the same moment in
many European contexts (Belgium, France, Ger-
many, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom).
While in most (but not all) cases it has been quite
easily managed when the veil is worn at school,
matters are different when women make the same
claims for religious freedom in the workplace and
in particular in the public sector. The tension
between two principles – individual rights to prac-
tice freely a religion versus state neutrality (as
expressed, for instance, by civil servants) – appears
obvious. It remains a national debate, not yet a
European one. This may eventually change once
the European Court for Human Rights produces a
case law helping Muslim women to have this spe-
cific claim recognized as an individual right to free-
dom of expression and of religious expression. This
is, however, not yet the case (see the recent decision
of the European Court for Human Rights, 44774/
98 on 29 June 2004.Bibliography
J.-Y. Carlier and M. Verwilghen (eds.), Le statut person-
nel des musulmans. Droit comparé et droit interna-
tional privé, Brussels 1992.
G. Jonker, Islamic knowledge through a woman’s lens.
Education, power and belief, in Social Compass50:1
(2003), 35–46.