The Headscarf as a Discursive Battlefield

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DC Field	Value
dc.identifier	ECF_chapter_6218
dc.contributor.author	Malli Gabriel
dc.title	The Headscarf as a Discursive Battlefield. Positions of the Current Discourse on Muslim Veiling in Austria and Germany
dc.type	Chapter
dc.language.iso	en
dc.description.abstract	Practices of Muslim female veiling are a frequent object of concern in the political debate in Austria and Germany. Reviewing current empirical and theoretical literature on the issue, I will try to trace relevant positions of the current debate employing a theoretical framework based on poststructuralist discourse theory. As I want to show, dominant discursive positions frequently refer to the oppressive element of the headscarf, understand it as opposed to shared ‘Western’ values or interpret it as an element of a process of Islamisation. Other, often marginalised speakers try to constitute veiling as a matter of freedom of religion, as a spiritual endeavour or as an act of resistance. Many of the positions represented in the public discourse, I argue, tend to overlook the variety of experiences Muslim women face at the intersection of various forms of dominance, and make invisible some of the multiple layers of meaning the practice of veiling is imbued with.
dc.relation.ispartof	Antiquity Studies
dc.relation.ispartof	Studi orientali
dc.publisher	Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Digital Publishing, Fondazione Università Ca’ Foscari
dc.issued	2021-08-30
dc.dateAccepted	2021-08-03
dc.dateSubmitted	2021-07-01
dc.identifier.uri	http://edizionicafoscari.it/en/edizioni4/libri/978-88-6969-522-3/the-headscarf-as-a-discursive-battlefield/
dc.identifier.doi	10.30687/978-88-6969-521-6/011
dc.identifier.issn	2610-8828
dc.identifier.eissn	2610-9344
dc.identifier.isbn	978-88-6969-522-3
dc.identifier.eisbn	978-88-6969-521-6
dc.rights	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
item.fulltext	with fulltext
item.grantfulltext	open
dc.peer-review	yes
dc.subject	Discourse
dc.subject	Discourse
dc.subject	Discourse analysis
dc.subject	Discourse analysis
dc.subject	Headscarf
dc.subject	Headscarf
dc.subject	Headscarf debate
dc.subject	Headscarf debate
dc.subject	Hijab
dc.subject	Hijab
dc.subject	Islam
dc.subject	Islam
dc.subject	Veiling
dc.subject	Veiling

Chapter
open access peer reviewed

The Headscarf as a Discursive Battlefield

Positions of the Current Discourse on Muslim Veiling in Austria and Germany

Gabriel Malli Universität Graz, Österreich

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abstract

Practices of Muslim female veiling are a frequent object of concern in the political debate in Austria and Germany. Reviewing current empirical and theoretical literature on the issue, I will try to trace relevant positions of the current debate employing a theoretical framework based on poststructuralist discourse theory. As I want to show, dominant discursive positions frequently refer to the oppressive element of the headscarf, understand it as opposed to shared ‘Western’ values or interpret it as an element of a process of Islamisation. Other, often marginalised speakers try to constitute veiling as a matter of freedom of religion, as a spiritual endeavour or as an act of resistance. Many of the positions represented in the public discourse, I argue, tend to overlook the variety of experiences Muslim women face at the intersection of various forms of dominance, and make invisible some of the multiple layers of meaning the practice of veiling is imbued with.

Published

Aug. 30, 2021

Accepted

Aug. 3, 2021

Submitted

July 1, 2021

Language

ISBN (PRINT)

978-88-6969-522-3

ISBN (EBOOK)

978-88-6969-521-6

Keywords: Hijab • Veiling • Headscarf debate • Discourse • Discourse analysis • Islam • Headscarf

permalink: http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-521-6/011

Copyright: © 2021 Gabriel Malli. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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