Nora Onar, Freedom of Religion vs. Secularism ?: Universal Rights, Turkish Islamism, and the Headscarf Ban. (original) (raw)
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The debate over the Muslim headscarf has become an arena of fervent discussion in Europe. Much of the debate reveals an attempt to explain the issue in binary terms, between modern, ‘secular’, universal and ‘religious’, traditional, local values. In this context, the hijab has become the symbol and mirror of the so called ‘clash of civilisations’. Through the analysis of two cases sentenced by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), my argument is that the passionate debate over the veil is a false one as the hijab emerges as a visible symbol of a clash between two legal-political systems, similar but contingently dissimilar: in fact, both Islamists and liberals aim at establishing a singular, universal (positivized) law within the same territory through women’s body. Thus, what the analysis of the ‘hijab cases’ reveals, is not only the emergence of a specific fixed and monolithic Christian/secular/liberal law’s subject, but also that the universality of western thought has precluded the possibility of imagining different forms of humanities and, along with it, a legal pluralism able to deal with a new multi-religious Europe
Unveiling the Veil Ban Dilemma: Turkey and Beyond
Journal of international women's studies, 2012
This article examines Turkey's veil ban policy, which has been in place since the 1980s. The dilemma is whether Muslim-veil bans impinge on the rights of expression and religion at both national and international levels or, whether states may legally justify a ban on the basis of secularism and women's rights. Even though the idea of freedom "from religion" in Turkey has been closely linked to the European notion of secularism during most of Turkey's republican history, more recently, secularism and veil bans in Turkey and in the West have been construed quite distinctly. This shows an increasing gap between European and Turkey's politics and values. Keywords: Human rights, Muslim-veils, secularism, Turkey, women's rights. Introduction Scholars and practitioners of international law have recognized the obstacles that human rights must overcome to conflate individual and collective rights into a cohesive system. More specifically, the collective nature o...
Rights and the Hijâb: Rationality and Discourse in the Public Sphere
When I took my family to France for one of the hottest summers on record, we went to a local municipal pool in Beaune. After paying the entrance fee and entering the pool area, we were informed that my children would not be allowed to swim wearing their North American boxer-style swimming shorts. "Public health" required that they wear speedo-type suits. No reason or evidence was offered to explain the policy. The officials simply said it was French law. The swimming pool administration generously provided washed speedos. My children had a great time. The next day, my youngest son developed an itch in his crotch. When we took him to the doctor, he was diagnosed with a serious skin infection most likely contracted from the borrowed swim suit.
REVIEW - Guiora, Amos N. Freedom from Religion: Rights and National Security. xviii + 188 pp
2015
prestigious occupations, such as those of lawyers, teachers and doctors, are hindered to veiled women and that this norm aims to protect class privilege (52). Veiled women represent the visual symbol of a group that the ruling class wants to keep socially and economically subordinated; in addition, veiled women are victims of a double discrimination, because they are deprived from a qualified education, not only in Turkey but also in France whose schools do not admit veiled girls. The book was published in 2012, so it necessarily does not include any comment on the Turkish government's recent announcement (September 2013) of a 'democratization package' that includes, among other measures, the lifting of a ban on Islamic headscarves for women in public institutions. However, for those interested in the evolution of the veil question not only in Turkey but also in Europe and the US, Hilal Ever's book is an indispensable text.
Female Subjects of International Human Rights Law: The Hijab Debate and the Exotic Other Female
In this paper, the presupposed ideas upon which the hijab is probibited in both France and Turkey – concerning the nature and purpose of veiling (these notions informed and influenced by a long history of Orientalism) – are examined and shown to provide an insufficient justification for the prohibition. Such notions serve to marginalize Muslim Women in the broader women’s rights movement in international human rights law, thereby engendering and maintaining the‘otherness’ofthe Muslim woman asthe‘ExoticFemaleOther’.Having considered how the rhetoric surrounding Muslim women, the veil and the prohibition are easily challenged and therefore significantly undermine the ban’s validity, the international law implications of the hijab ban are addressed – namely, the particular human rights that are violated are outlined in addition to a survey of the current effectiveness of international human rights discourse and institutions. Recommendations as to what should be done are also offered.
Islam, Custom and Human Rights
Springer eBooks, 2022
Human rights are one of the normative cornerstones of contemporary international law and global governance. Due to the complexities of actual or potential violations of human rights and in light of current crises, new and interdisciplinary research is urgently needed. The series Interdisciplinary Studies in Human Rights recognizes the growing importance and necessity of interdisciplinary research in human rights. The series consists of monographs and collected volumes addressing human rights research from different disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives, including but not limited to philosophy, law, political science, education, and medical ethics. Its goal is to explore new and contested questions such as the extraterritorial application of human rights and their relevance for non-state actors, as well as the philosophical and theoretical foundations of human rights. The series also addresses policy questions of current interest including the human rights of migrants and refugees, LGBTI rights, and bioethics, as well as business and human rights. The series editors are Members of the Centre for Human Rights Erlangen-Nürnberg (CHREN), an interdisciplinary research center at Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg. The Advisory Board brings together human rights scholars from a wide range of academic disciplines and regional backgrounds. The series welcomes suggestions for publications of academic research falling into the series subject matter.