This article presents results from a qualitative analysis of religious and gender-specific ‘othering’ in Austrian and French media discourse on Turkey’s accession to the EU (2004–2006). A typology of arguments justifying inclusion and exclusion of Turkey from Europe or the EU is presented, and gender-specific othering is placed in the context of differing 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.