Debates over the headscarf and niqab, so-called 'sharia-tribunals', Female Genital Operations and forced marriages have raged in Europe and North America in recent years, raising the question - does accommodating Islam violate women's rights? The book takes issue with the terms of this debate. It contrasts debates in France over the headscarf and in Canada over religious arbitration with the lived experience of a specific group of Muslim women: Somali refugee women. Breaking from scholarship that focuses on whether the accommodation of culture and religion harms women, Bassel pleads compellingly for a consideration of women in all their complexity, as active participants in democratic life.

Leah Bassel is New Blood Lecturer in Sociology at Leicester University. Her work, which focuses on the political sociology of gender, migration and citizenship, has been published in journals including Ethnicities, Government and Opposition and Politics & Gender. She is Assistant Editor of Citizenship Studies.

Preface. Acknowledgments 1. Introduction Part 1: Theoretical Perspectives and Tools 2. Changing the Subject 3. Frame Making, Frame Breaking Part 2: Politics Within 4. The French 'Headscarf Debates' 5. The Religious Arbitration Debate in Ontario, Canada Part 3: Politics In Between 6. Confronting the Politics of the Frame in Canada 7. Gender at the Borders in France 8. Race, Class and Gender Hierarchies: Intersecting Challenges and Opportunities 9. Frame Shattering 10. Conclusion. Appendix: Fieldwork