Politics, Religion and Gender Heated debates about Muslim women’s veiling practices have regu larly attracted the attention of European policy makers over the last decade. The headscarf has been both vehemently contested by national and/or regional gov ernments, polit­ ical par ties and pub lic intellectuals, and pas sion ately defended by veil wearing women and their sup porters. Systematically applying a comparative per spect ive, this book addresses the question of why the headscarf tantalizes and causes such con tro versy over issues about religious plur al ism, secularism, neutrality of the state, gender oppression, citizen ship, migration and multiculturalism. Seeking also to estab lish why the issue has become part of the regulatory practices of some Euro pean countries but not of others, this work brings together an import ant collection of in ter pretative research re gard ing the current debates on the veil in Europe, offering an interdisciplinary scope using a common research methodology, the con trib utors focus on the different religious, polit ical and cultural meanings of the veiling issue across eight coun tries and develop a comparative explanation of veiling regimes. This work will be of great inter est to students and scholars of religion and pol itics, gender studies and multiculturalism. Sieglinde Rosenberger is Professor of Political Science at the University of Vienna, Austria. Her research inter ests focus on the governance of religious plur al ism, migration and integration, identities and gender relations. Birgit Sauer is Professor of Political Science at the Department of Political Science, University of Vienna, Austria. Her research fields include democracy and differ ence, crit ical governance studies, gender in political institution, state theory, gender and globalization, and comparative gender policies. Routledge studies in religion and politics Edited by Jeffrey Haynes London Metropolitan University, UK This series aims to publish high quality works on the topic of the resurgence of political forms of religion in both national and inter na tional con texts. This trend has been espe cially notice able in the post-cold war era (that is, since the late 1980s). It has affected all the ‘world religions’ (including Buddhism, Chris­ tianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism) in various parts of the world (such as, the Amer icas, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, South and Southeast Asia and sub- Saharan Africa). The series welcomes books that use a variety of approaches to the subject, drawing on scholarship from polit ical science, interna tional relations, security studies and con tempor ary history. Books in the series explore these religions, regions and topics both within and beyond the conventional domain of ‘church–state’ relations to include the impact of religion on pol itics, conflict and de velopment, including the late Samuel Hunt­ ington’s controversial – yet influen tial – thesis about ‘clashing civilisations’. In sum, the overall purpose of the book series is to provide a comprehensive survey of what is currently happening in relation to the interaction of religion and politics, both do mestically and interna tionally, in relation to a variety of issues. Politics and the Religious Imagination Edited by John Dyck, Paul Rowe and Jens Zimmermann Christianity and Party Politics Keeping the faith Martin H.M. Steven Religion, Politics and International Relations Selected essays Jeffrey Haynes Religion and Democracy A worldwide comparison Carsten Anckar Religious Actors in the Public Sphere Means, objects and effects Edited by Jeffrey Haynes and Anja Hennig Politics and Religion in the United Kingdom Steve Bruce Politics, Religion and Gender Framing and regulating the veil Edited by Sieglinde Rosenberger and Birgit Sauer Politics, Religion and Gender Framing and regulating the veil Edited by Sieglinde Rosenberger and Birgit Sauer First published 2012 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2012 Selection and editorial matter, Sieglinde Rosenberger and Birgit Sauer; individual chapters, the contributors The right of Sieglinde Rosenberger and Birgit Sauer to be identified as authors of the editorial material and of the authors of their individual chapters has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Politics, religion and gender: framing and regulating the veil/edited by Sieglinde Rosenberger and Birgit Sauer. p. cm. – (Routledge studies in religion and politics) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Religion and politics–Europe. 2. Muslim women–Clothing–Political aspects–Europe. 3. Veils–Political aspects–Europe. 4. Muslim women– Clothing–Government policy–Europe. 5. Clothing and dress–Law and legislation–Europe. I. Rosenberger, Sieglinde, 1957– II. Sauer, Birgit. BL65.P7P64245 2011 305.6'97576–dc23 2011019714 ISBN: 978-0-415-56148-8 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-203-18105-8 (ebk) Typeset in Times by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear Contents List of figures and tables ix List of contributors x Acknowledgements xiv List of abbreviations xv Framing and regulating the veil: an introduction 1 SIEGLINDE ROSENBERGER AND BIRGIT SAUER PART I Frames and framing 15 1 Veiled debates: gender and gender equality in European national narratives 17 RIKKE ANDREASSEN AND DOUTJE LETTINGA 2 Thinking through secularism: debates on the Muslim veil in Europe 37 EIRINI AVRAMOPOULOU, GÜL ÇORBACIOĞ LU AND MARIA ELEONORA SANNA 3 Negotiating belonging: or how a differentiated citizenship is legitimized in European headscarf debates 55 NORA GRESCH, PETRA ROSTOCK AND SEVGI KILIÇ 4 Discursive Europeanization? Negotiating Europe in headscarf debates 74 İ LKER ATAÇ, SIEGLINDE ROSENBERGER AND BIRGIT SAUER viii Contents PART II Regulations and actors 95 5 Legal regulations: responses to the Muslim headscarf in Europe 97 SABINE BERGHAHN 6 Regulating religious symbols in public schools: the legal status of the Islamic headscarf in Bulgaria 116 KRISTEN GHODSEE 7 The limits of populism: accommodative headscarf policies in Austria, Denmark, and the Netherlands 132 LEILA HADJ- ABDOU, SIEGLINDE ROSENBERGER, SAWITRI SAHARSO AND BIRTE SIIM 8 In the name of laïcité and neutrality: prohibitive regulations of the veil in France, Germany, and Turkey 150 SABINE BERGHAHN, GÜL ÇORBACIOĞ L U , PETRA ROSTOCK AND MARIA ELEONORA SANNA 9 Non- regulation: opportunity for freedom of religion or sedimentation of existing power structures? 169 RIKKE ANDREASSEN, EIRINI AVRAMOPOULOU, NORA GRESCH, SEVGI KILIÇ AND BIRGIT SAUER 10 Muslim women’s participation in the veil controversy: Austria and the UK compared 186 LEILA HADJ- ABDOU AND LINDA WOODHEAD Conclusion: the veil as a case of value diversity and European values 205 SAWITRI SAHARSO Appendix 1: list of cited documents 217 Appendix 2: list of major frames and subframes of the VEIL project’s frame analysis 233 Index 235 Figures and tables Figures 4.1 Operationalization of ‘discursive Europeanization’ 78 4.2 Euro peanization versus national fragmenta tion 89 Tables 7.1 Regulation of the hijab 137 7.2 Factors in favour of accommodation 145 A.1 List of frames and subframes 234 Contributors Rikke Andreassen (PhD University of Toronto, Canada 2005) is Associate Pro­ fessor at Roskilde University, Denmark. Her research fields include gender, queer, race/ethni city, whiteness, sexuality, migration, nationality and media/ communication. She aims at combining her aca demic work with activism and public debates. She was a part of the Danish research team for the VEIL pro­ ject: www.rikkeandreassen.dk. İlker Ataç is Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science, Univer­ sity of Vienna. His research fields include interna tional polit ical economy, migration pol itics, governance and labour migration. Recent pub lication: Politik und Peripherie: Eine politikwissenschaftliche Einführung (Vienna: Mandelbaum Verlag, 2010). He was a part of the Austrian research team for the VEIL project. Eirini Avramopoulou is a PhD candidate at the Department of Social Anthro­ pology, University of Cam bridge (UK). Her research fields include gendered borders and belonging, theory of human rights, affect and citizen ship. She completed her fieldwork research in Istanbul where she explored issues related to fem in ist, queer and religious women’s activism. She was research assistant of the research project VEIL. Sabine Berghahn is (guest) Professor of Law and Political Science at the Hoch­ schule für Wirtschaft und Recht, University of Applied Sciences in Berlin. Her research fields are legal and femin ist studies as well as political science concerning the relationship between law and political institutions. In 2009 she edited a book together with Petra Rostock about the headscarf con tro versy in Ger many, Austria and Switzerland (Der Stoff, aus dem Konflikte sind, Bielefeld: Transcript), and published a number of articles on this topic. In the VEIL pro ject she headed the German research team. Gül Çorbacıoğlu is a PhD student at the