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The Emergence of Islamic Fashion as a Social Force in Europe
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EmailProfessor Annelies Moors
Universiteit van Amsterdam, International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World
Partners: Emma Tarlo, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK; Gritt Klinkhammer, University of Bremen, Germany; Connie Christiansen, Roskilde University, Denmark; Annika Rabo, Stockholm University, Sweden.
Researchers: Arzu Unal, ISIM; Leila Karin Osterlind and Degla Salim, Stockholm University; Sigrid Noekel, University of Bremen.
Contact: a.c.a.e.moors@uva.nl
Summary of the project
Whereas Islamic fashion in the Middle East has become a topic of serious research, studies in Europe have remained limited to discussions on veiling, often seen as a sign of the subordination of Muslim women. This proposal, in contrast, centres on the public presence of young women wearing styles of dress that are both recognizably Islamic and fashionable. It traces the conditions under which Islamic fashion has emerged in the European public sphere, investigates how the tensions between Islam and fashion are negotiated, and analyzes the effects of such emerging embodied practices of young Muslim women on the presence of Islam as a social force in Europe.
A focus on Islamic fashion is very helpful to gain insights in the emergence of religion as a social force in Europe. This is so because wearing Islamic fashion is an everyday practice that many practitioners link to religion, while it is also a practice that is publicly visible and engenders lively debates about religion in the public sphere. Whereas Islam has been defined as out of sync with European modernity, fashion is a thoroughly modern phenomenon, that invites a turn to women’s agency even if taking the force of the ’regime of fashion’ into account. The term ’Islamic fashion’ points to women’s belongings to the world of religion and that of fashionable dressing styles. An interest in fashion may function as an interface between young women of a wide variety of religious and ethnic backgrounds.
Research will be conducted in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Sweden. Whereas the emergence of Islamic fashion is a transnational phenomenon, it is always reworked locally. To understand this interaction, the set up of this project is comparative and includes countries that are diverse in terms of the backgrounds of Muslim migrants, state - religion relations, gender regimes, and youth and fashion cultures.
