cultural and religious elements of customs often
overlap. They know religion as part of their every-
day lives in their countries of origin, where most
people around them were also from the same cul-
ture and religion. Thus, the boundaries between
that which is religious and that which is cultural
have often been blurred.
It was noted in a recent British study that the
daughters of original immigrants are expected to
behave modestly and are subject to stricter parental
control than are their brothers. This is culturally
common across the Indian subcontinent, particu-
larly with Muslim and Sikh girls (Henninck,
Diamond, and Cooper 1999). Moreover, girls of all
religious affiliations from the Indian subcontinent
are more influenced by their cultural traditions and
their religions than are their European peers.
For many young Muslim women, the discrepan-
cies between the customs of European society and
the expectations of their parents and communities
are significant. The internal family expectation, on
the one hand, and general trends in youth behavior
in the broader social environment, on the other, can
create an imbalance, more so for young Muslim
females than for Muslim males. A young woman’s
sense of “self” in external society and within her
internal domestic realm can be very different
(Keaton 1999, 50) and this requires that she con-
stantly negotiate between them in order for her to
achieve a balanced psychological state (Hashmi
2003b).
In this way, Muslim women of all ages face a dual
discrimination as a racial minority in the majority
society and as women within their internal family
and community structures. As noted in reference to
Britain, “Sexism is intertwined with racism; one
reinforces the other, as far as Asian girls are con-
cerned” (Brooks and Singh 1978 cited in Brah and
Shaw 1992, 2).Multiple discrimination
Muslim women living in Europe experience a
two-fold discrimination (Hashmi 2000b). Being
Muslim in a non-Muslim society has led to some
difficulties, raising issues such as wearing the head-
scarf in school (for example, in France) or at work,
fitting prayer times into a work timetable, obtain-
ing halal meat or, since 11 September 2001, being
subject to the broad political discourse of terrorism
that is now associated with Islam.
While in religious terms women are supposedly
equal to men (apart from when acting as witnesses
or in the Islamic law of inheritance), in reality their
positions are often far less fair. Within many Mus-
lim families, a woman’s primary cultural role is that696 race, gender, and difference
of mother and a wife. However, this is frequently
oversimplified by observers from Western view-
points, and results in Muslim women being seen as
subordinate to Muslim men because their careers
and educations are not prioritized and their opin-
ions and sexual freedoms are suppressed. While
many Muslim women do face this two-tier discrim-
ination, there is recent evidence of change.
In research conducted in the late 1990s, young
Muslim women born and educated in France and
Britain felt that negative perceptions of Muslim
women were inaccurate and that they did not in fact
feel disadvantaged because of their gender in reli-
gious contexts (Hashmi 2003b). The fact that these
young women were participating in higher educa-
tion was clearly a factor contributing to these opin-
ions. Being in an external liberal environment gave
them the freedom to express themselves personally
and academically and opportunities to mix more
freely with a wider range of people – including
males of similar Muslim backgrounds who might
become prospective marriage partners. It also indi-
cates how education for females of this generation
is no longer stigmatized; only a narrow segment
of extremely traditional Muslims view university
education as jeopardizing their daughters’ marital
opportunities. Indeed, many Muslim parents in
Europe realize that having an education is an
important safety net for young women, should a
marriage fail (Ahmed 2001). However, the very fact
that education can be viewed as merely a safety net
indicates the view of many that marriage is still the
most important goal for their daughters.New generations and the
expression of “difference”
For young Muslims, Islam is learned from their
immigrant parents. Yet, in the transplanted context
of European Christian or secular society, it can take
on a more direct and personal meaning than the
customs of their parents’ country of origin. In its
purest form, Islam has more defined boundaries
than ethnicity or culture (Jacobson 1999, Hashmi
2000a) and thus can become a locus of identity that
acknowledges and incorporates their perceived
“differences” (Hashmi 2003b).
In the 1950s and 1960s, Muslims often wanted to
remain inconspicuous in order to fit into European
society. Nowadays, Muslim children are much
more visible in their local communities, in places
such as restaurants, shops, and the workplace.
This is epitomized in the wearing of the headscarf
(™ijàb) by Muslim women in Europe (Gaspard and
Khosrokavar 1995). Although European women
historically have covered their heads as well, now-