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Migrant Women Musicians: From Gendered Differentiations to Multisource Inequalities

Caroline Marcoux-Gendron, Kayvan Jafarinejad and Hélène Sechehaye
This thematic dossier explores the realities of migrant women musicians through fieldwork conducted in Belgium, Canada, and France. Fostering interdisciplinary dialogue, these articles draw from a range of humanities and social sciences. The three papers explore the micro, meso, and macro levels of migration processes by discussing individual career paths as well as socio-cultural and musical profiles, interactions between music network actors, institutional contexts, and the migration mechanisms and cultural policies underlying these musicians’ trajectories. The dossier reveals the numerous challenges that migrant women musicians face and the discriminations and inequalities they suffer based on gendered dynamics, along with multiple other parameters such as ethnicity, race, and religion.

Migration Shaping Musical Careers: The Experiences of Women Artists encountered in Montreal

Caroline Marcoux-Gendron
This article explores how migration influences professionalization and gender dynamics in the musical careers of ten women who have lived in Montreal within their migratory journey. Based on qualitative exploratory research, it reveals how migration complicates the notion of professionalization—a concept that is not unequivocal or shared for all musicians. It also shows the multiple mobilities (social, economic, statutory) experienced by these women, who find themselves at the centre of a new set of power relations that only an intersectional approach can help to fully capture. Thus, these artists navigate a multiplicity of sociocultural worlds and must negotiate multilayered, if not multiscale, gender, and professional logics.

Immigration Policy and Gender of “Talent”: Iranian Musicians’ Mobility towards France via the Passeport talent

Kayvan Jafarinejad
This article explores how gender affects the (im)mobility of Iranian women musicians who seek to pursue their careers in France with the passeport talent (talent passport) visa. It first examines the socio-professional conditions of women musicians in Iran and then analyzes France’s migration policies and its gender-related (dis)advantages for international artists. Not only do women’s bodies face systemic censorship in Iran, but they are also neglected in French migration policies due to a formal approach that fails to take into account substantive gender differences. Thus, the study sheds light on the complex interplay between the concept of gender and power relations in both the Iranian and French contexts.

“I Saw It in a Dream”: Moroccan Women Ša‘bī Musicians in Brussels

Hélène Sechehaye and Laïla Amezian
The Moroccan community is one of the largest national communities in Belgium. Several all-female bands are active at Moroccan weddings in Brussels, specialising in many genres, including ša‘bī (“popular”). This article focuses on the trajectories of these musicians, highlighting the obstacles they have faced as women in the Moroccan–Brussels community, and as migrant women in Brussels society. This article also examines different aspects of what it means to be a woman musician in the field of ša‘bī music: calling, education, musical skills, and musical activity, exploring the tension between their role as “ordinary” musicians and the crucial role they play in the most important events of one’s life.

La musique instrumentale et la systématique musicale : exploration de la relation entre l’instrument et l’univers mélodique et biphonique du dotâr

Farrokh Vahabzadeh
This article examines the relationship between the morphology of the dotâr, the two-stringed lute of Iran and Central Asia, and instrumental gestures, focusing on the position of the left hand. Through an analysis of the musical traditions of northern and eastern Iranian Khorâssân and Central Asia, it highlights the impact of ergonomics and instrumental morphology on melodic-gestural patterns. Practices vary according to cultures, notably in the use of the thumb for biphonies and drones. The study shows how these interactions shape musical structure and reflect distinct aesthetic worlds.

Travailler sa voix en cours d’éducation musicale et « prendre place », au prisme du capital émotionnel des adolescents

Claire Lavédrine and Bénédicte Gendron
This article explores vocal practice in music education within a French classroom and its role in students’ psychosocial development through the enhancement of their emotional capital, highlighting specific personal and social emotional skills. Emotional capital is considered as a resource for self-development and for improving social well-being. More precisely, this research examines the impact of vocal practice on self-regulation, self-assessment, and communication skills. Conducted with 169 students aged 11 to 13, divided into experimental and control groups, the study adopts a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative analyses (pre- and post-tests) with qualitative data. The article focuses on a qualitative exploration of the experimental group, based on questionnaire analysis, students’ qualitative feedback, and teachers’ direct observations. Findings point to an enhanced emotional and physical well-being, expressed through increased self-confidence and assertiveness, evolving communication skills, and strengthened classroom engagement. However, fear of judgment, feelings of incompetence, and apprehension about seeking help appear as limiting factors in the development of these skills.

Renihan, Colleen, John Spilker, and Trudi Wright, eds. Sound Pedagogy: Radical Care in Music. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2024. 280 pages. Paperback

Esther M. Morgan-Ellis