Marriage-partner Preference among Muslims in France: Reproducing Tradition in the Maghrebian Diaspora

Abstract

This article examines the prevalence of transnational cousin marriage in a Parisian suburb to consider its implications in reproducing “traditional” Muslim cultural identities among new immigrant women in France. In charting these marriages and tracing the migratory experiences of several first-generation women from North Africa to a Parisian banlieue (suburb) where I undertook extensive fieldwork, I consider why “traditional” Muslim women remain the ideal marriage partners for second and third generation French Muslim men of Maghrebian origin and their families. These brides have become emblematic of perceptions of cultural and religious purity in the diaspora in the face of dominant laïque discourses, often centralized on the hijab and Muslim women's “oppression.” I conclude that these women's bodies become symbolic armatures amidst fiercely debated gender politics and Maghrebian Muslim cultural values.