Why the French Don't Like Headscarves
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A01=John R. Bowen
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Affirmative action
Algeria
Algerian War
Author_John R. Bowen
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Civil service
Civil society
Classroom
Clothing
Communalism
Communalism (political philosophy)
Cornell University
Criticism
Deliberation
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eq_history
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eq_isMigrated=2
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Femininity
Feminism
Feminist movement
Freedom of religion
French nationality law
French people
Gallican Church
Halal
Headscarf
Hijab
Immigration
Islam
Islam and clothing
Islam in France
Islamic fundamentalism
Islamism
Jacques Chirac
Jean-Marc Ayrault
Jews
Jules Ferry
Law school
Le Monde
Legislator
Middle school
Mosque
Muslim
Muslim Girl
Muslim world
Nicolas Sarkozy
Oppression
Philosophy
Political philosophy
Politician
Politics
Private school
Proselytism
Protestantism
Public figure
Public space
Public sphere
Racism
Religion
Religious conversion
Republicanism
Sexism
Sikh
Social anthropology
Social issue
Sociology
Sociology of law
Stanford University
Statute
Suburb
Suggestion
Turban
Violence against women
Women in Islam
Product details
- ISBN 9780691138398
- Weight: 425g
- Dimensions: 152 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 24 Aug 2008
- Publisher: Princeton University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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The French government's 2004 decision to ban Islamic headscarves and other religious signs from public schools puzzled many observers, both because it seemed to infringe needlessly on religious freedom, and because it was hailed by many in France as an answer to a surprisingly wide range of social ills, from violence against females in poor suburbs to anti-Semitism. Why the French Don't Like Headscarves explains why headscarves on schoolgirls caused such a furor, and why the furor yielded this law. Making sense of the dramatic debate from his perspective as an American anthropologist in France at the time, John Bowen writes about everyday life and public events while also presenting interviews with officials and intellectuals, and analyzing French television programs and other media. Bowen argues that the focus on headscarves came from a century-old sensitivity to the public presence of religion in schools, feared links between public expressions of Islamic identity and radical Islam, and a media-driven frenzy that built support for a headscarf ban during 2003-2004.
Although the defense of laicite (secularity) was cited as the law's major justification, politicians, intellectuals, and the media linked the scarves to more concrete social anxieties--about "communalism," political Islam, and violence toward women. Written in engaging, jargon-free prose, Why the French Don't Like Headscarves is the first comprehensive and objective analysis of this subject, in any language, and it speaks to tensions between assimilation and diversity that extend well beyond France's borders.
John R. Bowen is Dunbar-Van Cleve Professor in Arts and Sciences, Professor of Anthropology, and Director of the Initiative in Pluralism, Politics, and Religion at Washington University in St. Louis. He is the author of "Muslims through Discourse" (Princeton), "Islam, Law and Equality in Indonesia", as well as the forthcoming "Can Islam Be French?" (Princeton).
