Outsiders Within: Framing and Regulation of Headscarves in France, Germany and The Netherlands

Abstract

While women in Europe who wear the Islamic headscarf are generally seen as outsiders who do not belong to the nation, some countries are more tolerant towards the wearing of headscarves than others. France, Germany and the Netherlands have developed different policies regarding veiling. In this paper we describe how headscarves became regulated in each of these countries and discuss the ways in which French, Dutch and German politicians have deliberated the issue. The paper is based on a content analysis of parliamentary debates on veiling in France (1989France ( -2007, Germany (1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007) and the Netherlands (1985Netherlands ( -2007. Our aim is to discuss what these national political debates reveal about the way in which the social inclusion of Islamic women in (or rather exclusion from) the nation is perceived in these three countries. Our claim is that veiling arouses opposition because it challenges national self-understandings. Yet, because nations have different histories of nation building, these self-understandings are challenged in various ways and hence, governments have responded to headscarves with diverse regulation. While we did find national differences, we also discovered that the political debates in the three countries are converging over time. The trend is towards increasingly gendered debates and more restrictive headscarf policies. This, we hypothesize, is explained by international polarization around Islam and the strength of the populist anti-immigrant parties across Europe.

Setting the Stage: Being Successful and Negotiating New (Mainstream) Identities

“…Moreover, the described statistical correlation is not equally expressive in all countries, as the underlying issue is regularly not a binary opposition between religious and not religious, but rather between different degrees of religiosity. At the same time, 'visible religiosity' in particular may influence possibilities for entering specific professional fields and career development within them: women who wear headscarves, for example, will still find it harder to find a teaching position in a secular state school or to be accepted into a corporate law firm with a rigid dress code, than they would if their religious beliefs were only made visible by an avoidance of alcohol and ham sandwiches (see also Lettinga & Saharso, 2014). Probably because of this diversity of reasons, religion was not a major issue in the interviews in all four countries -although contacting religious associations had been part of the sampling strategy in several countries: in Germany, for example, a network of Muslim academics of mostly Turkish background helped us to find and contact potential interviewees, and some respondents, especially in the Netherlands, had connections to the so-called 'Gülen-movement' which is particularly engaged in the fields of education, business and interreligious dialogue.…”

Tolerance of the Muslim headscarf: Perceived reasons for wearing a headscarf matter

“…Our focus, however, is not on the perspective of Muslimas but rather on how reasons for the wearing of the headscarf are presented in public and political debates and considered by majority group members. For example, politicians tend to emphasize one particular reason to frame the wearing of the headscarf, such as 'submissive' compliance with normative community pressures or in terms of self-determination and freedom of choice (Lettinga & Saharso, 2014). These perceived reasons are also found among majority group members.…”

“…However, there are also some differences between the countries with regard to citizenship regimes and regulations on the wearing of headscarves in public positions. Whereas in the Netherlands, civil servants are allowed to wear a headscarf (Lettinga & Saharso, 2014;Selby, 2015), in Germany there have been differences between the regional states, some of which (temporarily) banned the headscarf for teachers and government officials (Human Rights Watch, 2009;Selby, 2015). Such country differences in regulation make it especially relevant to explore whether there are differences between Dutch and German majority members in the relationships between perceived reasons for the wearing of a headscarf and their tolerance levels.…”

“…In these public and political debates, questions are raised about whether women wear a headscarf out of their own free choice or rather because of religious community pressures (Howard, 2012). For instance, liberals as well as some feminists have opposed the headscarf because it allegedly would symbolize gender inequality and Muslimas' lack of free choice (Everett et al, 2015;Fasel et al, 2013;Gustavsson et al, 2016;Lettinga & Saharso, 2014;Nussbaum, 2014). In addition to considerations of personal choice and community pressures, the debates also involve questions related to religious freedom and cultural traditions, as Muslim women are also considered to wear a headscarf for reasons of religious or cultural identity enactment (Howard, 2012).…”

Jews, Muslims and the Ritual Male Circumcision Debate: Religious Diversity and Social Inclusion in Germany

“…Law and medical sciences distill and embody non-Muslim and non-Jewish values i.e., those of Christian or, at least, liberal Christian values. Similarly, the Muslim body politics in Europe is about how Muslim bodies are marked as different and are excluded from the European public sphere (Korteweg & Yurdakul, 2014;Lettinga & Saharso, 2014). Drawing on such work on Jewish and Muslim bodies, I aim to show how discursive agents, such as legal authorities, newsmakers, and key political stakeholders try to shape minority bodies, those of Jews and Muslims, in Europe.…”