It has become increasingly apparent that there exists a circulation of similar public debates between France and Quebec around the Muslim question. The intense focus on “religious symbols” and on “the veil” precipitates both a public policy of secularism and the mobilization of Muslim civil society actors. Debates regarding “the veil” in France and Quebec have produced different effects at the legislative level, but also in terms of discrimination, exclusion, and hostile acts against women wearing headscarves. Using an intersectional as well as a comparative perspective, we consider the role that social categories of gender and religion play in discriminations that target veiled Muslim women. After proposing a critical synthesis of the concept of gendered Islamophobia, our analysis will foreground the results of two fieldwork research studies carried out in France and in Quebec, on the discriminations and mobilizations of headscarf-wearing Muslim women.
