Balancing agency, gender and race: how do Muslim female teenagers in Quebec negotiate the social meanings embedded in the hijab?

AbstractIn the past decade, the hijab has increasingly come to be regarded in the West as an unambiguous symbol of female oppression. Such an orientalist framework rests upon a feminist rhetoric using gender equality as a vehicle for the racialization of Muslims. Correlatively, from the 1970s onwards, conservative Islamist movements have converted the hijab into a natural(ized) symbol of cultural resistance to Western imperialism. In this context, what room is left to Muslim women's agency in the production of the social meanings embedded in veil wearing? I explore this issue by presenting the findings of an interview-based research with veiled and non-veiled high school Muslim female teens in Montreal (Quebec). I show that, although these teenagers have much leeway to bypass and subvert the dominant framings of veil wearing, one should not overestimate their capacity to disrupt the dominant gendered religious framework through which this practice is socially construed.Keywords: hijabMuslimyouthQuebecgenderracialization Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.Notes1. In Canada, the term 'reasonable accommodation' refers to the legal obligation of organizations to modify, without undue hardship, any norms or practices that fail to take into account the special needs of minority groups protected against discrimination under the law. In Quebec, starting in 2006, an inaccurate perception amply fuelled by the media came to prevail that Quebec's social cohesion and core values were under siege because of a deluge of unreasonable requests for religious accommodations made by Muslims and other religious minorities.2. Veiled informants (age, origin, age at arrival in Canada) V1: sixteen, Lebanese, threeV2: twelve, Algerian, Canadian-bornV3: thirteen, Algerian, nineV4: fifteen, Moroccan, Canadian-bornV5: seventeen, Moroccan, under oneV6: seventeen, Egyptian, sevenV7: seventeen, Pakistani, under oneV8: seventeen, Chinese, eightV9: fourteen, Tunisian, nineV10: seventeen, Moroccan, oneV11: fourteen, Algerian, elevenNon-veiled informants (age, origin, age at arrival in Canada)NV1: fifteen, Algerian, eightNV2: eighteen, Guinean, elevenNV3: thirteen, Algerian, fourNV4: seventeen, Algerian, tenNV5: sixteen, Lebanese, Canadian-bornNV6: seventeen, Lebanese, twelveNV7: eighteen, Qatari, tenNV8: seventeen, Algerian, twelveNV9: seventeen, Moroccan, twelve3. We compared our sample data with the closest proxy available in the census, that is, female Muslim Montrealers aged fifteen to twenty-four who were born in the Maghrib, South Asia and the Middle East, broken down by region of origin (Statistics Canada Citation2011).Additional informationFundingThis work was supported and funded by Quebec's Human Rights Commission [20 000 $].Notes on contributorsPaul EidPAUL EID is Professor in the Department of Sociology at Université du Québec à Montréal.