Saving and fearing Muslim women in ‘post-communist’ Poland: troubling Catholic and secular Islamophobia

Kasia Narkowicz; Konrad Pedziwiatr

doi:10.1080/0966369X.2017.1298574

Saving and fearing Muslim women in ‘post-communist’ Poland: troubling Catholic and secular Islamophobia

Kasia Narkowicz, Konrad Pedziwiatr

Department of Sociology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Sexual politics play a key role in anti-Muslim narratives. This has been observed by scholarship problematising liberal feminist approaches towards ‘non-Western’ subjects focusing on countries such as France, the USA and the Netherlands. Yet interrogations into how these debates play out in European national contexts that are located outside of the European ‘West’ have attracted significantly less scholarly attention. Drawing on qualitative data collected in Poland this article aims to begin to fill this gap by analysing the centrality of feminist discourses within Islamophobic agendas in Poland. The article asks how discourses around women’s rights are mobilised simultaneously, and paradoxically, by both secular and Catholic groups in ‘post-communist’ Poland. By showcasing how feminist sentiments are employed by ideologically opposing groups, we sketch out some of the complexities in the ways Islamophobia operates in a Central and Eastern European context.

Original language	English
Number of pages	12
Journal	Gender, Place and Culture
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2017.1298574
Publication status	Published - 20 Mar 2017

Bibliographical note

© 2017 Informa UK limited, trading as taylor & Francis Group. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details.

Access to Document

10.1080/0966369X.2017.1298574

Narkowicz-Saving and fearing Muslim women in ‘post-communist’ Poland
© 2017 Informa UK limited, trading as taylor & Francis Group. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details.
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Cite this

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abstract = "Sexual politics play a key role in anti-Muslim narratives. This has been observed by scholarship problematising liberal feminist approaches towards {\textquoteleft}non-Western{\textquoteright} subjects focusing on countries such as France, the USA and the Netherlands. Yet interrogations into how these debates play out in European national contexts that are located outside of the European {\textquoteleft}West{\textquoteright} have attracted significantly less scholarly attention. Drawing on qualitative data collected in Poland this article aims to begin to fill this gap by analysing the centrality of feminist discourses within Islamophobic agendas in Poland. The article asks how discourses around women{\textquoteright}s rights are mobilised simultaneously, and paradoxically, by both secular and Catholic groups in {\textquoteleft}post-communist{\textquoteright} Poland. By showcasing how feminist sentiments are employed by ideologically opposing groups, we sketch out some of the complexities in the ways Islamophobia operates in a Central and Eastern European context.",

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