associations in Western Europe should also be men-
tioned: some accept gender cooperation, like the
Union de la jeunesse musulmane in France, estab-
lished at the end of the 1980s, and Présence musul-
mane from the 1990s.Autonomous women’s
associations
This grouping includes autonomous associations
organized by women; this trend can be traced back
to the mid-1980s and became clearly visible during
the 1990s. Although many – in particular Turkish,
Moroccan, and Pakistani Muslims – interact
almost exclusively with Muslims of the same ethnic
origin, an increasing number of Muslim women’s
associations are crossing or superseding ethnic,
national, or linguistic barriers. Such associations,
most often based on the initiative of an individual
person or of a small group, are promoted by a new
generation interested in communicating in Euro-
pean languages, committing themselves to local
women’s concerns, and cooperating with non-
Muslim authorities and contacts with European
society at large. These groups offer counseling and
address social problems of the Muslim community.
They may offer remedial classes for young girls or
obtain space for sporting activities. Some sell, and
sometimes publish Islamic books, or they organize
telephone helplines for women.
Well known are the activities of An-Nisa Society,
founded in 1985, with headquarters in London and
related groups in Bradford and Birmingham. An-
Nisa Society provides a range of services not pro-
vided by the larger society or by male-dominated
Muslim associations or mosque groups. Their
activities include social work (counseling, informa-
tion concerning the rights of women, and so forth);
at the same time they also promote cultural activi-
ties such as art exhibitions, and encourage women’s
creative and artistic abilities.
In several European countries similar associa-
tions have been developed. Examples are the
women’s group of the Islamic Information Centre
in the Hague and the Foundation for Muslim
Women, also in the Netherlands. Autonomous
associations have existed in France since the early
1990s, when the Union des soeurs musulmanes of
Lyon was established as a support group for young
women who had been excluded from the educa-
tional system for insisting on wearing headscarves.
The association Femmes actives et sportives has
promoted participation in sports for women, and
the Ecole Lamalif offers courses in classical Arabic,
tutoring for schools and literacy classes, and plans
to open the first Muslim female chaplaincy in France,718 religious associations
in the women’s prison at Nanterre (Maréchal 2003,
106). The London-based Muslim Women’s Helpline,
established in 1989, offers counseling for women
with family problems, for elderly and isolated
women, and the like.
Although not all of them are long-lived, these
associations can be seen as an important sign of
vitality and of the will and motivation to ameliorate
Muslim women’s living conditions. In Norway, the
Oslo-based Islamic Women Norway, established in
1991, rapidly became one of the largest Muslim
associations in the country, with 3,500 active mem-
bers (in 2000) and with branches in three
Norwegian cities; the aim of the leadership is to
encourage sporting activities, mainly swimming,
and to encourage women and young girls to take
social responsibility by learning how to organize
such activities, to collect membership fees as well as
to receive their own modest wages, to fill out their
own tax returns, and so forth. Sporting activities,
for those interested, are combined with counseling
or Norwegian language courses. Because of the
swimming lessons, the association recruits mem-
bers who otherwise rarely engage in activities out-
side their homes, and who are not easily reached by
non-Muslim social services. Male members of the
Muslim community in many cases encourage their
wives or daughters to participate, but have also
expressed concern that women could develop non-
Islamic attitudes or that an activity which is not
™aram(forbidden) in itself could eventually lead to
one that is.Conclusion
Since the mid-1980s, different categories of
women’s associations have become increasingly vis-
ible, not only among Muslims themselves but also
in the larger society. The status of women has
become the symbol of an Islamic way of life in front
of the Western majority, and the importance of the
position of women is growing. Social problems
of the Muslim community are constantly in focus
in European societies. These include forced mar-
riages, Islamic divorce practices, and polygamous
marriages and have prompted some Muslim
women to become more active in the public sphere
and to establish groups or associations to support
and represent Muslim women. One of the more
contentious issues is, of course, the Islamic dress
code, especially the headscarf. Since the mid-1990s,
exclusion of women and girls from schools or jobs,
mainly in France, has led to the organization of sup-
port groups. The handling of the ™ijàb question –
an issue symbolically important both outside the
Muslim community and inside the associative