By looking at the hijab in context in the political, social, and domestic spheres of Tunisia, one gains a clearer understanding of the hijab’s complexity and a clearer understanding of each of those spheres. Politically, the condemnation of the hijab reveals the tension between the dominant, secular party and the Islamist movement, and the political oppression still prevalent in Tunisia. Socially, the wearing of the hijab reveals the tension between Orientalist perceptions of the hijab and the desire of Muslim feminists to create an authentically Islamic meaning of the hijab compatible with feminist ideas. Domestically, the hijab reveals the tension that remains between localized structures of patriarchy and individual women’s pursuit of liberation beyond emancipation and secularization. Despite the reforms established in the Personal Status Code and the secularization campaign by the government, they are not enough to completely alter negative domestic perceptions of women.

@font-face { font-family: "Times"; }@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } In October 2010 the Constitutional Council of France approved a law banning the burqa and niqab from all public places. Joining the ongoing scholarly discussion on veiling, this study seeks to understand the role the French press played in legitimating the ban, the first of its kind to be implemented in Europe. I argue that discourse in the press made the legislation appear reasonable and necessary because of its association with gender inequality and religious fundamentalism. This media narrative legitimated the legislation by presenting the veil as intolerable and “against public social order.” Made necessary by rapidly shifting demographics in contemporary France, this discourse was couched in a defensive employment of laïcité.

Bakgrund: I dagens Europa finns aktörer med delade åsikter kring hijab och dess betydelse. Debatten handlar om att eventuellt förbjuda slöjan i det offentliga rummet, detta på grund av att den bland annat anses vara en symbol för kvinnoförtryck. Ett förbud kan eventuellt leda till att de muslimska kvinnorna isoleras från samhället och integrationen försvåras. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att genom kvalitativa intervjuer undersöka en grupp muslimska slöjbärande kvinnors erfarenheter kring hijab. Det är även intressant hur föreställningar och upplevelser om slöjan hänger samman med processer som rör identitet och kultur. En människas identitet och kulturella tillhörighet kan krocka med omgivningens, därför är det intressant att undersöka om dessa muslimska kvinnor upplever sig som stigmatiserade. Metod: Studien är baserad på en kvalitativ metod. I de kvalitativa intervjuerna användes en halvstrukturerad intervjuguide med tre övergripande teman. Insamling av materialet har skett via livsvärldsintervjuer med tio respondenter och under samtalets gång har följdfrågor ställts som varit relevanta i det unika mötet. Teori: Studiens teorietiska utgångspunkter är identitet, kultur, kulturmöten och stigmatiseringen. Dessa har varit till hjälp i analyseringen av materialet samt i besvarandet av syftet och frågeställningarna. Resultat: Resultatet visade att det fanns delade uppfattningar om hijab och dess betydelse i samhället. Kvinnorna i studien har en stark självbild liksom identitet och kultur som bidrar till att de känner självsäkerhet gällande valet av att bära slöja. Delar av samhället har dock en annan uppfattning om slöjan och vidtar i många fall diskriminerade åtgärder för att visa deras inställning. / Background: Today in Europe there are actors with shared views about the hijab and its importance. The debate is about possibility of banning the veil in public places. Hijab is particularly considered a symbol of female oppression. A ban could lead to the point that Muslim women would isolate themselves from society and integration gets more difficult. Purpose: The purpose of this essay is that through qualitative interviews analyze experiences of the veil in a group of Muslim women. It is also interesting how perception and experience of the veil is linked to processes related to identity and culture. A person’s identity and cultural affiliation may collide with its surroundings. We are therefore also interested if the Muslim women see themselves as stigmatized. Method: The study is based on a qualitative method. Qualitative interviews which is a half structured interview, has been used in this essay. An interview guide with three overarching themes has also been used. The collection of material has been through life-world interviews with ten respondents, and during the interviews, the following points were raised which were relevant in the unique meeting. Theory: The theoretical starting point is identity, culture, cultural encounters and stigmatization. These have been helpful in the analyze and to answer the question of our purpose. Results: The results showed that there were different views on the hijab and its importance in society. The women in the study have a strong self-image, identity and culture that contribute to the self-assured security when it comes to the choice of wearing a veil. Parts of society have a different view of the veil and take different discriminating actions.

No description available.

Although federal laws prohibit employment discrimination, potential discrimination against Muslim women wearing the hijab is possible. The purpose of this study was to describe how religious stereotypes and religious artifacts may influence hiring and what the origin of this phenomenon is. A phenomenological perspective was used in this research focusing on the participant's perceptions in comprehending the meaning of having a Muslim woman wearing the hijab in a job interview and how/why this meaning is constructed. The phenomenon studied was the nature and range of stereotypes that recruiters hold about Muslim women wearing the hijab. Qualitative interviews with nine participants were conducted in the states of Illinois and Missouri in 2010. These participants were in charge of hiring in the educational and healthcare sectors. Five main themes from the interviews data were identified: (a) fear of Muslims, (b) hijab appearance vs.hijab functionality, (c) impact of cultural and religious differences, (d) stereotypes, and (e) discrimination in the United States. The findings have offered an opportunity to investigate, illustrate and document stereotypes on Muslim women wearing the hijab that could intervene during a hiring process. They have provided a glimpse into the stereotypes that recruiters hold about Muslim women wearing the hijab and the Muslim community as well. In particular, this study confirmed that there is a need to educate people in charge of hiring on how stereotypes may shape their decisions. The most distinctive finding of this study is the aesthetic aspect of the hijab. All the participants explicitly acknowledged the beauty of the hijab. This finding showed how complex the research participants' perceptions were about the hijab. How the appearance of the hijab could be viewed so positively and how its function was perceived negatively by them.

No description available.

No description available.

À la fin des années 1980, trois adolescentes d’origine musulmane ont été exclues de leur collège parce qu’elles refusaient d’enlever leur voile en classe. Ce « fait divers » aurait pu passer inaperçu s’il n’avait pas été étalé de manière spectaculaire sur la scène médiatique. Les raisons invoquées pour justifier cet engouement tiennent en un mot : faire respecter le principe de laïcité au sein de l’école républicaine. Mais très vite, le débat a pris d’autres proportions avec l’intervention d’une grande partie d’intellectuels et l’on apprend soudainement que, derrière le foulard, se cache la soumission de la femme, si ce n’est une volonté affichée de « communautarisme », voire d’« intégrisme religieux ». La nation serait alors en danger et l’on comprend que la question du foulard rebondisse en 1994, avec cette fois-ci une détermination de la part des militants laïcs de mettre en échec le droit en vigueur, formulé par le Conseil d’État en des termes limpides : le port d’un signe religieux par les élèves ne saurait, en lui-même, constituer un motif d’exclusion, sauf cas avéré de « port ostentatoire et revendicatif ». Reste que dans un mouvement d’éternel retour, le problème du foulard resurgit brutalement en 2003, se politise et s’achève par la promulgation en mars 2004 d’une loi interdisant le port du voile dans les établissements publics.Sur le fond, cette évolution a mis en exergue un aspect essentiel : la crainte des « immigrés » et d’un islam devenu trop visible. Elle a également permis d’opposer la laïcité à la liberté religieuse. Notre travail consiste justement à comprendre comment on en est arrivé à rendre antinomiques deux principes fondamentaux sur lesquels repose, entre autres, la notion de démocratie en République française. Cette interrogation est d’autant plus légitime que la polémique autour du foulard avait explicitement ignoré le point de vue des femmes voilées, passant ainsi à côté des différentes significations que ce bout d’étoffe pouvait contenir. De fait, si l’objectif de notre recherche est de passer au crible la position de ceux qui ont oeuvré à l’interdiction du foulard dans l’espace scolaire, il s’agit aussi de donner la parole à ces femmes qui n’ont pas eu droit de cité. Dans cette optique, notre souci premier est de connaître comment elles vivent leur voilement. Quel sens donnent-elles au port du voile ? Quel regard jettent-elles sur un débat qui semble mettre en cause leur liberté d’expression confessionnelle ? Ces questions sont à la base de notre problématique. / At the end of the 80s, three girls of Moslem origin were excluded from their middle school because they refused to remove their veil in class. This «news item» would have been able to pass unnoticed, had not it been spread in a spectacular way over the media scene. The reasons called to justify this craze like are the will to make respect the principle of secularism within the republican school. But, very fast, the debate took other proportions with the intervention of many intellectuals who thought that behind the scarf hides the submission of the woman, if it is not a will posted by «communitarism» even of « religious fundamentalism ».Then, the nation would be in danger and we can understand that the question of the scarf bounces in 1994, with this time a determination on behalf of laic activists to put in check the current law, formulated by the Council of State in crystal clear terms: the bearing of a religious sign by the pupils does not constitute in itself a motive for exclusion, except in cases of «ostentatious and claiming bearing» . But in a movement of eternal return, the bearing of the scarf reappears brutally in 2003, politicizes, and ends with the promulgation in March, 2004 of a law forbidding the wearing of the veil in public institutions. In fact, this evolution highlighted an essential aspect: the fear of the «immigrants» and the Islam become too visible. It also allowed to set secularism against the freedom of religion. Our work consists in understanding how we managed to make paradoxical these two fundamental principles on which the notion of democracy in French Republic, among others, rests. This interrogation is all the more justifiable since the debate around the scarf had explicitly ignored the point of view of the veiled women, so passing next to the various meanings which this end of fabric could contain. Actually, if the objective of our research is to examine closely the position of those who intervened for the ban on the scarf in the school space, it is also a question of giving the floor to these women who have not been established. So, our first questions are: how do they live their buckle ? What sense do they give to the wearing of the veil ? What glance do they throw on a debate which seems to question their confessional freedom of expression ? These questions are on the base of our research

Thesis (M.A.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Anthropology, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

The practice of wearing hijab has been around for hundreds of years and around the world by Muslim women. It has been revealed that the decision to wear hijab is varied among Muslim women ranging from religious convictions to the consideration of the attire as a tool for empowerment. This paper, which utilizes a normative method with an argumentative structure, will defend the right of veiled Muslim women to employment and free from discrimination, and aims to clarify why the general ban on religious sign, specifically on hijab in this regard, not conforming to the basic principles of human rights . The argumentation will include a discussion and critiques regarding the two core principles in favor of banning hijab in the field of employment and comes to the conclusion that they appear to be built on weak grounds. Furthermore, some relevant conflicting principles regarding the hijab issue within the field of employment will be discussed. The conclusion maintains that veiled Muslim women shall not be pushed into the corner of the society by the two dominant discourses which are now included in the written legislations within the European laws and national laws. The paper concludes by stating that veiled Muslim women shall be accommodated to work and contribute to the European mainstream employment just like females from other groups.