Gender-speciic constructions of the ‘other religion’ in French and Austrian discourse on Turkey’s accession to the European Union* Karin Bischof, Florian Oberhuber and Karin Stögner Institute of Conlict Research, Vienna his article presents results from a qualitative analysis of religious and gender- speciic ‘othering’ in Austrian and French media discourse on Turkey’s accession to the EU (2004–2006). A typology of arguments justifying inclusion and exclu- sion of Turkey from Europe or the EU is presented, and gender-speciic other- ing is placed in the context of difering national discourses about Europe and diverging visions of secularisation and citizenship. Secondly, various topoi of orientalism are reconstructed which play a crucial role in both national corpora, and it is shown how various historically shaped discourses of alterity intersect and produce gendered images of cultural and religious otherness. Keywords: European Union, enlargement, Turkey, discourse analysis, print media, identity, orientalism, France, Austria 1. Introduction In Europe, cleavages and conlicts are increasingly interpreted in terms of religious values and religious ailiation, and especially Islam is constructed as the ‘other religion’ (cf. Göle 2002, Fetzer and Soper 2005). Contested issues and policy ac- tion included the building of mosques in European town centres, forced marriage or the wearing of headscarves in public institutions. Hence, gender in particular seems to be a central terrain of cultural and social alterity constructions. his article is based on the results of a research project on current conigura- tions of European identity and religiously interpreted cleavages in the EU. 1 he new paradigms of alterity at the intersection of gender and religion were ana- lysed as a key resource for better understanding the European and national self and the challenges that religious diversity implies for national and European Journal of Language and Politics 9:3 (2010), 364–392. doi 10.1075/jlp.9.3.02bis issn 1569–2159 / e-issn 1569–9862 © John Benjamins Publishing Company