HEAD SCARVES and VEILS what is behind these pieces of textile?

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1 HEAD SCARVES and VEILS what is behind these pieces of textile? Foto: Prof. Dr. Gaby Franger-Huhle Dornbirn, July 2007 Foto: Meral Akkent

2 HEADSCARVES and VEILS what is behind these pieces of textile? Politics and Headscarves: Strategies in the European Community pro and contra the Muslim veils.

3 Case I: Amy and Lila Levy, France Two sisters, Amy und Lila Levy (16 and 18), have been dismissed from high schoool in the Paris suburb of Aubervilliers, because of wearing a muslim headscarf, the hijab, which not only covers their hair but also their front and neck. They are new converted muslims, their parents don t live Islamic tradition. The Father is a jew and calls himself an atheist, the mother is an Algerian Kabylei and says: That s a custom of the arab people, we don t use it. This case lead to the French scarf ban in Foto: /_c-549/_nr-10/_p-1/i.html?phpsessid= It is our religious conviction and sense of shame

4 FRANCE Headscarf Ban: Proposed in December 2003 and backed by parliament in march 2004, the ban came into effect on September It says that conspicious religious items may not be worn in school. Forbidden items include the Muslim headscarves, Sikh turbans, Jewish skullcaps and large Christian crucifixes.

5 Case II: Fatima Mouayche, Italy In 2004 Fatima Moyache, a 40 year old mother of two children, had been assigned to a job in northern Samone after competing a course for nursery teachers. She was refused with the argument, that she would frighten the children with her headscarf. Some days later she got an employment in the neighbour town Ivrea and started to work in the communal kinder garden. Foto: o/servizio/servizio.html My children grew up seeing my headscarf and they are not afraid

6 Italy 2004: The minister of the Interior, Guiseppe Pisanu: If the headscarf is worn without emphasis, it is only a harmless symbol of a cultural and religious identity, that earns our full respect The parliamentarian Daniela Santanche started a campaign against the veil. She is promoting a law that would prohibit girls beyond 18 to wear Islamic cloths in public areas, because all children should be equal and young girls would not be able to take decisions for themselves.

7 Case III: Shabina Begum, Great Britain The school-girl had worn a regulation shalwar kameez (trousers and tunic) until September 2002, when she informed the school authorities that she intended to wear a full-length gown called a jilbab. The High School refused to allow her to wear a jilbab. The case went through three british juridical appellate courts until she finally lost at the Judical commitee of the House of Lords. I feel it as an obligation upon Muslim women to wear the jilbab, although there are many other opinions

8 Case III: Shabina Begum, Great Britain The court considered the schools right to set a school uniform - which had taken immense pains to devise a uniform policy which respected Muslim beliefs - higher than her indvidual right, because she knew the schools policies, when she had chosen the school. Shabina Begum eventually attended another local school where she can wear the jilbab. Foto: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/beds/bucks/herts/ stmx

9 Case IV Aishah Azmi, Great Britain The teacher was asked to remove the niqab after complaints from the pupils saying they were unable to fully understand what she was saying. She informed the school that she would only remove the veil if no male member of staff was present, in accordance with a Muslim interpretation of the Qur an concerning modesty for women.. Foto:

10 Case IV Aishah Azmi, Great Britain Her employer did not accept it. She was immediately suspended. She took her case to an employment tribunal. It dismissed her case of religious discrimination but found that the school had failed to instruct her before the suspension. On 30 March 2007 the Employment Appeal Tribunal dismissed her appeal. The appeal tribunal found that there had been indirect discrimination, but that this was acceptable because it was an appropriate way of raising educational standards.

11 Great Britain Jack Straw, leader of the House of Commons, raised Muslim ire by saying he did not believe that women should wear the full-face veil, a headdress with only a narrow slit for the eyes. Mr. Straw had asked Muslim women meeting with him to remove their veils, arguing that it prevented communication and set the wearer apart. Tony Blair: It is a mark of separation and that is why it makes other people from outside the community feel uncomfortable.

12 Case V Fereshta Ludin, Germany Why should such a decision a very personal decision be taken by politicians or state institutions? Where is my right to decide my own fate as a woman? Where does this leave my chances of emancipation in this society. Foto: The teacher, born in Afghanistan, is German citizen since She regards her religion as a part of her personality, and sees no discrepancy between her Islamic faith and her adherence to the value of freedom and democracy. She has been insisting on her right to practise her religion and to be allowed access to public office - in Germany teachers are civil servants. She filed a lawsuit through several levels of administrative courts but always lost.

13 Germany Finally the Federal Constitutional Court ruled, that there was no legal basis for the refusal to employ her as a teacher because of her headscarf. To prohibit such a religiously motivated and highly personal behaviour there must be an explicit legal competence for the state in the applicable School Act or similar laws. As a consequence till now eight federal states have passed acts in order to prevent teachers from wearing headscarves while teaching classes in public schools. Christian and Jewish symbols of faith are with the exception of Berlin permitted.

14 Case VI: Leyla Şahin, Turkey Foto: _archiv/november05/archiv _november05.htm Leyla Şahin, born 1973, comes from a traditional family of practising Muslims and considers it her religious duty to wear the Islamic headscarf. In February 1998 the University of Istanbul issued a circular directing that students with beards and students wearing the Islamic headscarf would be refused admission to lectures, courses and tutorials. In March 1998 she was denied access to a written examination because she was wearing the Islamic headscarf. She applied to the European Court of Human Rights.

15 Turkey To cover the neck and hair with a veil or headscarf for reasons of religious conviction in universities is contrary to the Turkish constitution. The European Court of Human Rights notified in the case of Leyla Sahin v. Turkey that there had been no violation of the European Convention on Human Rights: of the freedom of thought, conscience and religion, freedom of expression, prohibition of discrimination.

16 Discussion The question of whether a female teacher may wear a headscarf for religious reasons in a public school is complex. Various human rights perspectives come into play here: the religious freedom of the teacher as well as the religious freedom of the pupils, the parents' right of care and custody, and finally gender equality. (Heiner Bielefeldt, Deutsches Institut für Menschenrechte) There are two sorts of secularism an inclusive and an exclusive variety. For the inclusive or broadminded secularism, religious symbols are individual symbols that concern specific communities, groups, or individuals. (Nasr Hamid Abu Zeid, University of Utrecht) In the german discussion on the hijab there is a strong tendency to use gender aspects as instruments to blame the headscarf for the oppression of Muslim girls and women and to take it as a proof of the anti-egalitatian orientation of Islam in general. This interpretation is often used in a conservative double standard way or in a radical feminist anti-islamic way.(berghahn, Rostock)

17 Bibliographie Berghahn, Sabine, Rostock, Petra: Cultural Diversity, Gender Equalitiy The German Case. Paper presented for the Conference: Gender Equality, Cultural Diversity: European Comparisons and Lessons, Amsterdam June 2006 (Organized by Anne Phillips/Sawitri Saharson) Farouky, Jumana: The many faces of Europe, Thursday Febr. 15th 2,007 ( ) Hoopes, Talvikki: The Leyla Şahin v. Turkey Case before the European Court of Human Rigths, in: Chinese Journal of International Law (2006), Vol.5, No.3, Important links: BBC -News: VEIL Projekt (Values Equality & Differences in Liberal Democracies)