Pious Practice and Secular Constraints Women in the Islamic Revival in Europe [Hardcover]

The visible increase in religious practice among young European-born Muslims has provoked public anxiety. New government regulations seek not only to restrict Islamic practices within the public sphere, but also to shape Muslims', and especially women's, personal conduct.Pious Practice and Secular Constraintschronicles the everyday ethical struggles of women active in orthodox and socially conservative Islamic revival circles as they are torn between their quest for a pious lifestyle and their aspirations to counter negative representations of Muslims within the mainstream society.

Jeanette S. Jouili conducted fieldwork in France and Germany to investigate how pious Muslim women grapple with religious expression: for example, when to wear a headscarf, where to pray throughout the day, and how to maintain modest interactions between men and women. Her analysis stresses the various ethical dilemmas the women confronted in negotiating these religious duties within a secular public sphere. In conversation with Islamic and Western thinkers, Jouili teases out the important ethical-political implications of these struggles, ultimately arguing that Muslim moral agency, surprisingly reinvigorated rather than hampered by the increasingly hostile climate in Europe, encourages us to think about the contribution of non-secular civic virtues for shaping a pluralist Europe.

This is an impressive, engaging, and well-written study of ethical practice in a contradictory world. Focusing on pious Muslim women in Europe, Jouili expertly weaves together the voices of these women with a sophisticated theoretical approach that takes the study of ethical practice in a significant new direction.Pious Practice and Secular Constraintsis an important contribution to the anthropological study of Islam in the modern world and to anthropology more broadly. This book is a welcome contribution to the anthropology of ethics, diasporic Islam, and feminist studies. Jouili talcÀ