Spatial performances of gender, Islam and the “secular”: Muslim girls’ playing football in Dutch public playgrounds

There is a large focus on the dominant discourses that frame Muslim women as “other” in European public spaces, but less research on the spatial practices of Muslim women themselves. Through an ethnographic case-study of urban girls’ football, this article provides new insights in research on gender and Islam in Europe, as it shows that Muslim girls, through playing football, contest the normative constructions of Dutch public space as masculine, white and secular. The article approaches playing football as spatial performance, and takes into account those public spaces that are not explicitly religious, indeed a domain much less studied in research on Islam and gender in Europe. I argue that it is important in research on Islam, gender and public space to not only focus on explicit religious public practices, but also on practices that are not explicitly religious or Islamic, as they emphasize the potential for resistance.