Religion in practice. The veil in the sporting space in Tunisia

The author aims to analyze the experience of wearing the veil in the sporting space in Tunisia. This experience articulates, in effect, two contradictory social practices: the practice of religion that respects Islamic values and the practice of sport characterized by specific ways of presenting the body in a space dominated by men. The qualitative analysis of a corpus of semi-structured interviews reveals a logic of negotiation adopted by veiled women engaging in sport. It can be identified in the way they adjust their movements when engaging in sport and the way they cope with mixed sporting activities. The practices thereby identified reflect the shifting religious attitudes in Tunisia and the plurality of modes of being a veiled woman in Islamic countries.