Being a Pious French Muslim Woman

Abstract

In secular France visible religious practice is socially discouraged within public spheres. For pious Muslims, in particular pious Muslim women, who actively participate in these spheres, piety cannot be lived out without encountering certain problems. The negotiations that these women engage in, favouring at times visibility, at times invisibility, not only allow the living of virtuous lives under often difficult circumstances, but more importantly are part of a process by which ethical Muslim selves are constituted in secular, non-Islamic contexts.