adays, for many non-Muslims, the headscarf sym-
bolizes the oppressive patriarchy that they believe
Islam to be. When women are forced to wear ™ijàb,
this argument stands. However, research indicates
that many young Muslims choose to wear the
™ijàb, even though their mothers do not and their
fathers do not insist upon it (Hashmi 2003b, 195).
The wearing of the ™ijàbinfuriates some Muslim
women who feel that to wear it simply acknowl-
edges Muslim female inequality and negates what
the Western world has granted them: treatment as
equals outside their communities and families,
allowing them to question the patriarchal values
underlying certain traditions, and re-educating and
empowering them without criticism or alienation
from their religious communities.
The wearing of the headscarf is just one indica-
tion of the reinvention of Islam in Europe that must
be distinguished from the Islam of their immigrant
parents. Young Muslims are more confident in
expressing their religious identities and of being
accepted as women, Muslims, and ethnic minori-
ties. This trend has been aided by recent develop-
ments in European Union anti-discrimination
legislation that now protects women, racial minori-
ties, and the practice of religion (Bell 2002).
Recently, the issue of forced marriage has typi-
fied the negative aspects of what young Muslim
women must endure from their families. The idea
of an unmarried girl or woman bringing shame on
her family as a result of liaisons she might have with
males (whether sexual or not, Muslim or non-
Muslim) is also viewed as archaic and indicative of
a cultural interpretation of Islam that is both sexist
and hypocritical. British cases of fathers killing
their daughters (known as “honor killings”) be-
cause of this shame have exacerbated the view that
Islamic domestic life continues to be a domain of
female servitude, even though this practice is
mainly cultural. Forced marriages are a similar
concern, where daughters (although also sons) are
sent overseas to marry against their will. This prob-
lem is largely confined to families where the parents
are less educated immigrants from rural areas of
the Indian subcontinent who live within insular
western europe 697communities in Britain, where the predominant
interpretation of Islam is based on a cultural patri-
archal misinterpretation.
Research has shown that it is these daughters
who are questioning their place as Muslim women
(Hashmi 2003b). It is perhaps on this basis, and
with optimism, that future generations of female
European Muslims may be less subject to these
internal levels of cultural discrimination. More-
over, as young women become more open in dis-
cussing their religion with non-Muslims, they may
help form new perceptions and realities for and
about Muslim women externally in contemporary
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