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This article addresses the complex reflections regarding gender relations expressed by women active in the contemporary Islamic revival movements in Europe (especially France and Germany). Much recent research conducted among these groups aims to counter the rather negative accounts prevailing in public discourses on gender and Islam. This literature notably argues that women's conscious turn to Islam is not necessarily a reaffirmation of male domination, but that it constitutes a possibility for agency and empowerment. However, when faced with certain ‘traditionalist’ positions defended by these women, even this well-meaning literature seems precarious, left in a state of uncertainty. Taking this puzzlement as a point of departure, this contribution aims to think about the dilemmas involved in articulating a language for women's dignity and self-realization, which competes with dominant languages of equality, individual rights and autonomy. This project is rendered even more intricate by the fact that these pious Muslim women socialized in Europe have also been partly fashioned by the liberal discourses against which they want to position themselves.

This article discusses how religious Muslim women negotiate Islamic prayer and Islamic dress within French and German public spheres where Islamic connoted bodily practices are not easily accommodated. While these women perceive their practice first and foremost in terms of devotional practices with the objective to fashion and strengthen a pious self, within the context of these secular public spheres they also get entangled in (re‐)signification processes. In order to grasp these specific shifts in the religious practices in question, the article discusses approaches that emphasise the role of corporeality in the shaping of religious subjects with those conducted in the field of performance theory.