Representing Gender, Defining Muslims? Gender and Figures of Otherness in Public Discourse in Switzerland

Abstract

On 28 November 2009, Swiss citizens accepted a constitutional ban on the construction of new minarets. The referendum campaign had led to a very emotional and harsh public debate on the Muslim presence in Switzerland. This group is the main target of current social and political debates over the meaning of Swiss multiculturalism and of Swiss national identity; it is therefore represented as the main figure of the Other that Swiss society has to deal with. The research in this chapter is based on an analysis of two French-language Swiss newspapers, Le Temps (a liberal newspaper of record) and Le Matin (more of a tabloid); two periodicals, L'Hebdo and L'Illustre ; television news programmes and the Infrarouge programme, which centres on political and public debates. The analysis shows that when gender is present as a form of identification, Muslims are generally constructed as having given and fixed culturalreligious attributes. Keywords:figures of otherness; gender; minaret; Muslim; political debate; public debate; Swiss multiculturalism