LIANE HANSEN, host:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Liane Hansen.
This week, NPR begins a series on Muslim women in Europe. Their status varies from country to country. But everywhere, women's empowerment is being seen as the key to the Muslim community's integration into European societies.
Our senior European correspondent Sylvia Poggioli traveled to Britain, France and Germany - three European countries with the largest number of Muslims. Sylvia is on the line to preview this week's stories.
And Sylvia, first of all, why are Muslim women becoming such important players?
SYLVIA POGGIOLI: In the heated debate on Islam in the West, Muslim women are often the flashpoint - their dress codes, their rights, their roles in society. But their voices are rarely heard. Now, there's a second and third generation of Muslim women in Europe who are better educated than their mothers and grandmothers, and they're beginning to tackle the obstacles women face.
For example, a patriarchal tradition sees women as the weak link. The men fear the family clan structure is jeopardized if women adopt Western lifestyles. In Berlin, women's rights activist Seyran Ates said this is why many Turkish German women are forced to live in isolation.
Ms. SEYRAN ATES (Women's Rights Activist): They are under control of their man or of their family. These are women who are physically living in Germany but psychologically living in the Nazar culture which is looking much more for gender apartheid.
POGGIOLI: Now, in the broader society, Europeans are questioning the notion of multiculturalism, which often leads to separate parallel societies. This does not mean separation automatically equals terrorism. But officials fear a growing divide and a lack of dialogue can only breed conflict. So they're beginning to focus on women in the belief they have the most to gain in becoming full-fledge members of mainstream society.
HANSEN: Sylvia, you visited women in mosques in London, Paris. And this one, in Berlin.
(Soundbite of chanting)
HANSEN: How important is the mosque in these women's personal lives?
POGGIOLI: It's very important, but in different ways in each society. Here in Berlin, women came to break the Ramadan fast. But it's more than a place for prayer. I met women who don't speak German although they've lived there for years. These women are very alienated from the broader society, so attending mosque is also a form of therapy. It's a place where they can be reassured in their identities.
In Paris and London, I saw better-educated and more self-confident Muslim women. Many are studying the Koran and entering the traditionally male bastion of religion. In France, for example, women students are the majority in Islamic studies institutes.
HANSEN: Sylvia, while you were reporting from London, you found women who actually seem to be turning their backs on British society.
POGGIOLI: Yes. As are many young men. And this worries authorities, especially in light of the London bombings. Polls show a very small percentage of British Muslims identify with British society. This is how Amna Durani, talk show host of the Islam Channel, put it to me.
Ms. AAMNA DURRANI (Host, Muslimah Dilemma, Islam Channel): My allegiance to the Muslim - what we'd say Ummah, the Muslim community - definitely has got a lot, a lot stronger as a result of the war on terror. It has made the sense of solidarity throughout the world, I think, a lot stronger, and definitely, for Muslim women here in Britain. Yeah, it's really made us think where do our loyalties lie.
POGGIOLI: I met British Muslims with a strong desire for separation and unwillingness to mingle with Western culture; and women wearing the face covering nikab, who have pressured their mothers and grandmothers to cover their head for the first time in their lives.
HANSEN: Talk a little bit about France. Because your report that France is Europe's most rigidly secular society. And of all the Muslims in Europe, those in France most closely identify with the country's secular values. That seems like a paradox.
POGGIOLI: It is. And keep in mind that during the riots in the immigrant suburbs last year and a couple of years ago, Muslim youth don't shout religious slogans but brandish their identity cards, demanding jobs and full representation. One important signal was President Sarkozy's appointment of three Muslim women to his cabinet. But activist Sihem Habchi told me there's still lots of discrimination and that there are no Muslim mayors and only one Muslim MP.
Ms. SIHEM HABCHI (President, Ni Putes Ni Soumises): We don't understand why they want to build this wall between us and the rest of the society. I can represent all the French, you know? I'm French since a long time, you know? And I can defend the values of progress also.
POGGIOLI: Nevertheless, many Muslim women spoke with pride that French secular society taught them to speak as individuals and not as part of a group. Muslim sociologist Dumnia Boussard(ph) told me they belong to the first Muslim generation that does not seek religious and social guidance from the Islamic homelands of their parents and grandparents.
HANSEN: NPR senior European correspondent Sylvia Poggioli. Her series about Muslim women in Europe begins tomorrow on MORNING EDITION.
Sylvia, thanks very much.
POGGIOLI: Thank you, Liane.