Although the origins of the concept of feminism are not very old, feminist ideas date back to the Ancient Greek and Chinese civilizations. In this period, called first-wave feminism, women managed to gain this particular right and assumed that they would win all the other rights as well. In post-Cold War Europe, religion and gender relations have been at the heart of many transformative processes, including migration, cultural pluralism, bioethical debates, and demographic change, which creates challenges for theories of secularization.
Feminist research has often neglected religious women, while research on religious inclusion has neglected women. Since the beginning of the 21 st century, scholars and policymakers have begun to advocate for collective state approaches to religious pluralism and to apply policies tackling religious and gender inequalities. They argue that granting political power to religious organizations enshrines gender inequality through state support for religious-cultural practices that harm women e.
Gender equality and the emancipation of women are thus brought into the debate as to if they were factual realities in European societies.
In the French press, the weekly Marianne magazine comes to the forefront in terms of endorsing such arguments very frequently, assisting in the reproduction of anti-Muslim rhetoric in France. Gender equality is interpreted as an effective norm of Western modernity that Islam is called upon to respect. From time to time, Muslim women are placed at the center of French public debates where they are targeted due to their way of life.
The burkinis or sports hijabs they wear are demonized, they are forbidden to wear the veil when accompanying their children on school trips; the anti-veil discourse thus, somehow legitimizes different forms of discrimination against Muslim women. On the extracurricular playing field, in private nurseries, on public beaches, in sports competitions βin other words, in everything and everywhere that involves a public presenceβ the veil, as a sign visible and recognizable to the eyes of all that its wearer adheres to the Muslim faith, is forbidden.
