ABSTRACT
This contribution focuses on face-veiling and ‘Islamic marriages’ in the Netherlands. Both practices have attracted much public attention, with notions such as autonomy, agency, choice, and consent being employed in both hegemonic discourse and the narratives of Muslim women themselves. Drawing on Foucault’s notion of problematization, the author asserts that these practices have been turned into problems as part and parcel of the process of governing. She concludes with a note on how liberal-secular rule produces more and less acceptable forms of religion and sexuality, and hence considers some expressions of autonomy desirable and other expressions undesirable.
