Secularity in a world ‘torn by difference’: A consideration of the French headscarf affair from South Africa

Abstract

This paper attempts to raise questions about the model of multiculturalism that is the ideal in South African state schools, by examining the debates around secularity in the public space that came to a head in France in 2003, which have very different philosophical and historical antecedents from those that inform South African principles. The paper focuses on the arguments made by members of the Stasi commission, convened by president Chirac in mid 2003, to make recommendations about the continuing viability of secularity (la laïcité) in contemporary France.

Spatialities of the Secular

“…7. For a full discussion of the context and work of the Stasi Commission in English, see Kros (2005) and Thomas (2006). 8.…”

“…Thus, some of the arguments for 'toleration' put forth in Anglo-American journals patronize French intellectuals or politicians operating 'within their own cultural limits' (Galeotti, 1994: 676), as if Anglo-American views on these issues were not, themselves, constrained by any 'cultural limits'. Several scholars have more recently discussed the specific meanings of laïcité in French political thought and attempted to 'translate' French debates in order to make them understandable, or at least less easy to caricature and dismiss, from Anglophone points of view (see Kros, 2005;Laborde, 2002).…”