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ABSTRACT
The controversies around Islam in France have given rise to a series of public policies. Such measures have led to an expansion of what is usually referred to as ‘public space’ and a generalization of the principle of ‘neutrality’ which was previously only required of public officials. Limitations on the visibility of Muslim religious practice are intrinsically gendered since the controversies that led to political decisions were aimed at Muslim women, particularly those who wear a marker of Muslim religiosity: the hijab, a garment that covers their head. This article draws on the sociology of public policy to analyse concepts such as ‘laïcité’, ‘dignity’ and ‘fundamental values’ that have been used to legitimize the legal exclusion of veiled women from public space, paradoxically in the name of their emancipation.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. We can define segregation as the acts, speeches and laws that prohibit certain groups, – because of their gender, race, religion, sexual orientation or social class – from accessing a range of private and public spaces. Throughout history, many segregations were legal. For example, the apartheid regime in South Africa, the Jim Crow laws in the United States, the segregation of indigenous people in the French and British colonial empires.
2. On December 7th, 2011, a bill was introduced and adopted by the French Senate, which aimed at prohibiting nannies from wearing the veil, but it was rejected by the National Assembly. However that wasn’t enough to put an end to the controversy, as in 2013 and 2015, similar law proposals were introduced again, this time by left-wing representatives. They were both rejected. The irony of this idea is that veiled women do not wear the veil at home, so it makes little sense to prohibit women from wearing it when they’re taking care of children in their own home …
3. Since March 15th, 2004 in France, a law bans girls from wearing a headscarf in public primary and secondary schools.
4. Regarding the controversies around the headscarf in gyms and sports facilities: http://leplus.nouvelobs.com/contribution/1498866-musulmane-je-suis-privee-de-salle-de-sport-a-cause-de-mon-voile-j-ai-decide-de-me-battre.html
5. About the burkini ban: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48744153
6. In November of 2015, the mother of one of terrorist Mohammed Merah’s victims was booed and heckled for wearing a veil as she was giving a speech on tolerance at the National Assembly:https://www.huffingtonpost.fr/2015/12/08/latifa-ibn-ziaten-mere-victime-mohammed-merah_n_8751058.html
7. The controversy began in 2011 when a court decided to prohibit ‘veiled mothers’ from participating in their children’s field trips and school excursions. That decision taken by the administrative court of Montreuil (22 November 2011, n°1012015), was later confirmed by a circular issued on March 27th, 2012 by then Minister of Education Luc Chatel, which supported the interdiction. In October of 2014, Minister of Education Najat Vallaud Belkacem overturned that decision:https://www.politis.fr/blogs/2016/10/les-meres-voilees-sont-autorisees-a-participer-aux-sorties-scolaires-34148/
8. In 2016, a restaurant owner proudly claimed he refuses to serve veiled women:https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/french-restaurant-refuses-to-serve-muslim-customers-because-all-muslims-are-terrorists-a7214581.html
9. Regarding the French ban on the niqab:https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/23/europe/france-niqab-ban-un-intl/index.html
10. Defined as ‘all the issues that are handled in any way, shape or form by public authorities, which makes them susceptible to be subject to one or more decisions’ (Garraud, Citation1990, p. 27). ‘Understanding the processes through which issues are selected therefore constitutes the main source of analysis in terms of agenda-setting’ (Hassenteufel, Citation2010, p. 50).
11. Law of March 15th, 2004 n°2004-228, circular of May 18th, 2004.
12. Public policy consists of all the ‘interventions of an authority invested with public power and government legitimacy over a specific domain of a society or a territory’ (Thoenig, Citation2014, p. 40).
13. For that reason, the several law proposals aimed at prohibiting ‘nannies’ from wearing religious symbols are not included in this analysis. First, because these proposals never resulted in public policies, all three bills having been rejected and never signed into law. And secondly, because their aim to prohibit wearing a veil in private homes, not in public space.
14. This neologism was coined by Australian fashion designer Aheda Zanetti to offer the possibility of going the beach to the women (mainly Muslim women) who wish to do so in an outfit that aligns with their beliefs.
16. Founded by Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve in 2016, with the intent to promote Islamic cultures and foster ‘a humanistic Islam, an Islam of France that recognizes the values and principles of the Republic’.
17. This appeal to natural reason resonates with the philosophical definition of public space cited above, in which reason must prevail over superstition and religious beliefs.
18. Statement made by J-P. Chevènement on August 15th, 2016:https://www.lepoint.fr/politique/aux-musulmans-chevenement-conseille-la-discretion-dans-une-periode-difficile-15-08-2016-2061384_20.php
20. It is observed that whereas there exist nudist beaches where people can be naked without being convicted for sexual exhibitionism, there are no special beaches reserved for veiled women.
21. However, the UN Human Rights Committee found France guilty of violating Muslim women’s religious freedom in three landmark rulings issued during the year 2018: the first one for endorsing a discriminatory dismissal in the Baby Loup nursery case, and the other two for fining women under the 2010 law banning the full face-veil from public space: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/france-niqab-ban-burqa-human-rights-united-nations-islam-veil-a8599131.html
23. Interview of Fatima Khemilat for the Washington Post on May, 10 of 2020 https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/france-mandates-face-masks-while-continuing-to-ban-the-burqa/
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Fatima Khemilat
Fatima Khemilat is a Ph.D. Fellow at the Political Science Institute of Aix-en-Provence and a former Lecturer at the University of East-Paris (UPEC). She is currently finishing her doctoral dissertation on Muslim minorities in France; successes, and challenges. In 2016, to complete her training in intersectional studies, Fatima Khemilat was Visiting Researcher at the University of California Berkeley, at the Center for Race and Gender. From an interdisciplinary perspective, she has published articles on European governments’ public policy regarding sexual, racial and religious minorities and on the ways that these minorities use, resist or ignore it in return.