Stereotypes and Self-Representations of Women with a Muslim Background

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Margaretha A. van Es

   Pages 1-38

3. Stereotypes of Women with a Muslim Background

   • Margaretha A. van Es

   Pages 39-79

4. Self-Representations by Women in the Dutch Organisations

   • Margaretha A. van Es

   Pages 81-118

5. The Dutch Organisations and Islam

   • Margaretha A. van Es

   Pages 119-157

6. Women’s Attempts to Break Stereotypes in the Netherlands

   • Margaretha A. van Es

   Pages 159-189

7. Self-Representations by Women in the Norwegian Organisations

   • Margaretha A. van Es

   Pages 191-234

8. The Norwegian Organisations and Islam

   • Margaretha A. van Es

   Pages 235-256

9. Women’s Attempts to Break Stereotypes in Norway

   • Margaretha A. van Es

   Pages 257-292

10. Conclusion

    • Margaretha A. van Es

    Pages 293-302

11. Back Matter

    Pages 303-317

    PDF

This book explores how stereotypes of “oppressed Muslim women” feed into the self-representations of women with a Muslim background. The focus is on women active in, and speaking on behalf of, a wide variety of minority self-organisations in the Netherlands and Norway between 1975 and 2010. The author reveals how these women have internalised and appropriated particular stereotypes, and also developed counter-stereotypes about majority Dutch or Norwegian women. She demonstrates, above all, how they have tried time and again to change popular perceptions by providing alternative images of themselves and of Islam, paying particular attention to their attempts to gain access to media debates. Her central argument is that their efforts to undermine stereotypes can be understood as an assertion of belonging in Dutch and Norwegian society and, in the case of women committed to Islam, as a demand for their religion to be accepted. This innovative work provides a “history from below” thatmakes a valuable contribution to scholarly debates about citizenship as a practice of inclusion and exclusion. Providing new insights into the dynamics between stereotyping and self-representation, it will appeal to scholars of gender, religion, media, and cultural diversity.

 

• Islamophobia
• Asymmetrical power relations
• Ethnic minorities
• Contemporary women’s movements
• Self-organisation
• Religion

• Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

  Margaretha A. van Es

Margaretha A. van Es is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. She is a social historian specialising in inter-ethnic relations and perceptions, gender, media and religion.

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