Abstract
One of the many disastrous consequences of the tragic events of 9/11 is the war waged by the neocolonialists in order to “liberate” Muslim women. This gender-based war stands on a series of pillars, such as the presumption that Western civilization offers women a great deal of privileges, while Muslim culture gives none. Therefore, it would be logical to suppose that, because of the many opportunities the West grants to Muslim women who reside there, the latter may have an active role in the local political process. However, Muslim women have scarce visibility in European political life, and their presence is sometimes merely instrumental to some party: in most cases, women are coopted because they are a good sample of “secular Muslims” (i.e., they do not wear the hijab, i.e., the veil and a modest attire); in others, they are appointed because they are veiled and can therefore become a good vehicle in order to win the support both of the Muslim community and of its sympathizers. In this paper, I will analyze some crucial aspects of Muslim women’s formal political participation in some European countries; in addition, I will focus on the Italian case with the help of a series of interviews with Muslim women who play an active role in local political councils. The study shows how in European politics, Muslim women can become a commodity even when they stand out as rising political individuals; but also how they fight to gain visibility and public recognition, in spite of the tense situation and of the rampant Islamophobia.
Highlights
In the post-9/11 era, the complexity of the relation between European countries and their Muslim citizens has deepened substantially
In the British Isles, we find some differences with the rest of Europe as, alongside more “secular” female politicians, we find women whose religious background is their hallmark and whose politics are centered on their belonging to the Muslim community
Though she lives in a North European country known to be the home of civilization, liberty and civil rights, she has paid for her appearance even before she could prove she was apt at doing her job as a politician
Summary
In the post-9/11 era, the complexity of the relation between European countries and their Muslim citizens has deepened substantially. We might label them all, aside from Cemila Yusuf, “secular Muslims”, a neologism that mainly addresses those who believe in Islam, but who do not practice the religion They seem to be more representative of their ethnic (Turkish) group rather than their religious bend, as they belong to the largest non-national ethnic group living in Germany [2]. I refer to the first Muslim women to become Members of the British Parliament, Pakistan barrister Yasmina Qureshi, who is the President of the Muslim Lawyers Association, and Shabana Mahmoud, who hit the news because she publicly supported two campaigns, i.e., the boycotting of Israeli products [4] and the revocation of the ban on wearing the niqab (the veil covering the whole face except the eyes) at Birmingham Metropolitan College [5] Some of these women, paid a big price for their commitment to the Muslim cause: this was the case of Bengali Rushanara Ali, who, after four years of serving as MP for the Labour Party, had to resign in September 2014 as she refused to support the.
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