Visible Others': A Reading of the European Obsession with the Female Veil

Abstract

This article aims to analyse the current European obsession with the practice of veiling. What emerges from this analysis is that the regulation of clothes and images in the public sphere is an integral part of European history and emerges as a necessary act of sovereign power aimed at instituting a precise law and religious subject through regulation of the licit form of visibility in the public sphere. This act, reinforced by the promulgation of exceptional rules of law, is necessary to maintain the unity and homogeneity of European people, in the past as well as nowadays.

The Burka Ban: Islamic Dress, Freedom and Choice in The Netherlands in Light of the 2019 Burka Ban Law

“…In the media, women who chose to cover up are often singled out as being a threat to the universal values and principles of gender equality, autonomy, emancipation, secularism and tolerance and as being in need of liberation from the oppression of their religion and men in their society (Andreassen and Lettinga 2012;Rosenberger and Sauer 2013). Furthermore, since Islam is often portrayed by some social actors (far right politicians, certain media platforms) as the Visible Other, veiling becomes a physical marker between "us" and "them", two cultures that are positioned in a hierarchical manner as each other's opposite (Andreassen and Lettinga 2012;Baldi 2017; Lutek 2018).…”

“…At times, they are considered less intelligent and are perceived to be foreigners (Hass and Lutek 2018;Moors 2009;Vroon 2014); as a result, some have faced discrimination in the job market and in other societal institutions. The hijab is perceived as the most visible symbol of female degradation by non-Muslims, a condition that marks the world of Islam, but is problematically perceived as alien to the West (Baldi 2017;Moors and Tarlo 2013;Read and Bartkowski 2000;Read 2007;Van Nieuwkerk 2003;Van Nieuwkerk 2004;Van Nieuwkerk 2014). As Read and Bartkowski show, theological rationales may be a set of motivations for donning the veil, but for many of their veiled respondents "the scriptural edicts and the religious symbolism surrounding the veil are given palpable force through their everyday gender practices .…”

“…Wearers of burkas, niqabs and facial coverings are in the minority in Dutch society, but the issue is always in the headlines, most likely because of the mismatch between this item of clothing and popular conceptions of Western life in a country like the Netherlands. Baldi analyzed what she called the current European obsession with the practice of veiling as a necessary act of power needed to maintain the unity and homogeneity of the European people (Baldi 2017). Veiled women, especially converts to Islam, pose a challenge to such a notion and thus attract media attention (Hass and Lutek 2019;Vroon 2014;Vroon-Najem 2007).…”

The Religious Sign from a Semiotic Perspective a Social-Semiotic Interpretation of the Challenges Presented by the Concept of Religious Sign in the Context of French Schools

“…Presenting caricatures of religious figures to students, which was cited as a pretext for the harassment and murder of Samuel Paty, is a situation feared by nearly two-thirds of teachers (62%) [42]. 5 The fear the teachers express is even fueled by the idea that behind the young pupils wearing a religious symbol lies an ideology and fundamentalist movements that manipulate them to varying degrees. In this context, social networks and the Muslim Brotherhood movement are sometimes mentioned, and the anthropologist Florence Bergeaud-Blackler describes in Le Frérisme et ses réseaux how the Muslim Brotherhood movement seeks to implement a strategy of Islamization in non-Muslim countries, in various domains, including education [7].…”

“…Communautarisme is a word that has operated in French political discourse as a generally accepted marker of illegitimacy [66]. Those who are accused of it are suspected of rejecting the French principle of cultural assimilation [65] and are equated with the "other": "If, in the past, the 'enemy' was identified with the 'stranger', the 'outsider', the 'uncontrollable' nowadays, Islam has become the 'other' and the hijab the symbol of 'otherness'" [5].…”