ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the female entrepreneurship by delving into institutional and social factors that shape the entrepreneurial environment for women within the context of Muslim societies. It considers the interplay between gender and religious affiliation in shaping female entrepreneurship. The chapter extends the knowledge frontier in entrepreneurship beyond its traditional focus on Western countries with predominantly Christian populations. It examines that whether Islamic affiliation has a depressing effect on entrepreneurship at the country level. The chapter delves deeper into the Republic of Turkey and also examines that whether the rate of entrepreneurial activity is boosted in a constitutionally secular Muslim-majority country like Turkey as compared to other Islamic countries. In Turkey and France, on the other hand, the dominant ideology is assertive secularism where the state actively excludes religion from the public sphere. Secularism is the separation of religion from politics, where each one is defined as distinct spheres.
