The reports on Islamophobia produced in recent years by organizations which work to deal with discrimination make clear the different forms of violence endured by Muslims in the Spanish State, regardless of their gender. Though many variables are used to analyze this and calibrate the impact, the fact that women are the most affected by Islamophobia is indisputable today.

Likewise, in academia this centrality of Muslim women in Islamophobic policies and activities has undergone analysis, pointing out how the characterization of these women as oppressed beings who need to be saved from Islam forms the central axis of Islamophobia itself. As a result, stating that Islamophobia is riddled with the matter of gender goes beyond just pointing out women as its main victims, but also involves underlining the instrumentalization of the oppression of Muslim women to legitimize Islamophobia in all of its forms.

Canadian professor Jasmin Zine was one of the first to explore the relationship between Islamophobia and gender from this perspective. Her analyses of “gender-based Islamophobia,” as the term was coined by herself, point out, on the one hand, the specific forms of ethno-religious, racial discrimination which work specifically against Muslim women and, on the other, take a closer look at the gender-based discrimination which characterizes the different forms of domination exerted over the Muslim population as a whole.

This seminar, organized jointly by the Group for Analysis on Islam in Europe (GRAIS) at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Casa Árabe, is an attempt to delve further into these topics, proposing a debate between Jasmin Zine and activists and scholars from Spain. The idea is to analyze and discuss the possible implications of gender-based Islamophobia in the context of Spain, but on the basis of the Canadian perspective.

This debate is intended for a specialized audience.