Table Of ContentPolitics, Religion and Gender
Heated debates about Muslim women’s veiling practices have regu larly attracted
the attention of Europ ean policy makers over the last decade. The headscarf has
been both vehemently contested by national and/or regional gov ern ments, polit
ical par ties and pub lic intellectuals, and pas sion ately defended by veil wearing
women and their sup porters. Systematically applying a comparative per spect ive,
this book addresses the question of why the headscarf tantalizes and causes such
con tro versy over issues about religious plur al ism, secularism, neutrality of the
state, gender oppression, citi zen ship, migration and multiculturalism.
Seeking also to establ ish why the issue has become part of the regulatory
practices of some Euro pean count ries but not of others, this work brings together
an imp ort ant collection of in ter pretative research re gard ing the current debates
on the veil in Europe, offering an interdisciplinary scope using a common
research methodology, the cont rib utors focus on the different religious, polit ical
and cultural meanings of the veiling issue across eight coun tries and dev elop a
comparative explanation of veiling regimes.
This work will be of great intere st to students and scholars of religion and
pol itics, gender studies and multiculturalism.
Sieglinde Rosenberger is Professor of Political Science at the University of
Vienna, Austria. Her research intere sts focus on the governance of religious
plur al ism, migration and integration, identities and gender relations.
Birgit Sauer is Professor of Political Science at the Department of Political
Science, University of Vienna, Austria. Her research fields include democ racy
and diff er ence, crit ical governance studies, gender in politi cal institution, state
theory, gender and globalization, and comparative gender policies.
Routledge studies in religion and politics
Edited by Jeffrey Haynes
London Metropolitan University, UK
This series aims to publish high quality works on the topic of the resurgence of
politi cal forms of religion in both national and inter na tional con texts. This trend
has been espe cially notice able in the postc old war era (that is, since the late
1980s). It has affected all the ‘world religions’ (including Buddhism, Chris
tianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism) in various parts of the world (such as, the
Amer icas, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, South and Southeast Asia
and sub Saharan Africa).
The series welcomes books that use a variety of approaches to the subject,
drawing on scholarship from polit ical science, intern a tional relations, securi ty
studies and con tempor ary history.
Books in the series exp lore these religions, regions and topics both within and
beyond the conventional domain of ‘church–state’ relations to include the impact
of religion on poli tics, conflict and de velopment, including the late Samuel Hunt
ington’s controversial – yet influe n tial – thesis about ‘clashing civilisations’.
In sum, the overall purpose of the book series is to provide a comprehensive
survey of what is currently happening in relation to the intera ction of religion
and pol itics, both do mestically and intern a tionally, in relation to a variety of
issues.
Politics and the Religious Imagination
Edited by John Dyck, Paul Rowe and Jens Zimmermann
Christianity and Party Politics
Keeping the faith
Martin H.M. Steven
Religion, Politics and International Relations
Selected essays
Jeffrey Haynes
Religion and Democracy
A worldwide comparison
Carsten Anckar
Religious Actors in the Public Sphere
Means, objects and effects
Edited by Jeffrey Haynes and Anja Hennig
Politics and Religion in the United Kingdom
Steve Bruce
Politics, Religion and Gender
Framing and regulating the veil
Edited by Sieglinde Rosenberger and Birgit Sauer
Politics, Religion and Gender
Framing and regulating the veil
Edited by Sieglinde Rosenberger and
Birgit Sauer
First published 2012
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2012 Selection and editorial matter, Sieglinde Rosenberger and Birgit
Sauer; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Sieglinde Rosenberger and Birgit Sauer to be identified as
authors of the editorial material and of the authors of their individual
chapters has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patent Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now
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without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Politics, religion and gender: framing and regulating the veil/edited by
Sieglinde Rosenberger and Birgit Sauer.
p. cm. – (Routledge studies in religion and politics)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Religion and politics–Europe. 2. Muslim women–Clothing–Political
aspects–Europe. 3. Veils–Political aspects–Europe. 4. Muslim women–
Clothing–Government policy–Europe. 5. Clothing and dress–Law and
legislation–Europe. I. Rosenberger, Sieglinde, 1957– II. Sauer, Birgit.
BL65.P7P64245 2011
305.6'97576–dc23
2011019714
ISBN: 9780415561488 (hbk)
ISBN: 9780203181058 (ebk)
Typeset in Times
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
Contents
List of figures and tables ix
List of contributors x
Acknowledgements xiv
List of abbreviations xv
Framing and regulating the veil: an introduction 1
SIEGLINDE ROSENBERGER AND BIRGIT SAUER
PART I
Frames and framing 15
1 Veiled debates: gender and gender equality in European
national narratives 17
RIKKE ANDREASSEN AND DOUTJE LETTINGA
2 Thinking through secularism: debates on the Muslim veil in
Europe 37
EiRini AVRAmopoUloU, Gül ÇoRBAcioğlU And
MARIA ELEONORA SANNA
3 Negotiating belonging: or how a differentiated citizenship is
legitimized in European headscarf debates 55
NORA GRESCH, PETRA ROSTOCK AND SEVGI KILIç
4 Discursive Europeanization? Negotiating Europe in
headscarf debates 74
İlkER ATAÇ, SiEGlindE RoSEnBERGER And
BIRGIT SAUER
viii Contents
PART II
Regulations and actors 95
5 Legal regulations: responses to the Muslim headscarf in
Europe 97
SABINE BERGHAHN
6 Regulating religious symbols in public schools: the legal
status of the Islamic headscarf in Bulgaria 116
KRISTEN GHODSEE
7 The limits of populism: accommodative headscarf policies in
Austria, Denmark, and the Netherlands 132
LEILA HADJ ABDOU, SIEGLINDE ROSENBERGER,
SAWITRI SAHARSO AND BIRTE SIIM
8 In the name of laïcité and neutrality: prohibitive regulations
of the veil in France, Germany, and Turkey 150
SABinE BERGHAHn, Gül ÇoRBAcioğlU,
PETRA ROSTOCK AND MARIA ELEONORA SANNA
9 Non- regulation: opportunity for freedom of religion or
sedimentation of existing power structures? 169
RIKKE ANDREASSEN, EIRINI AVRAMOPOULOU,
NORA GRESCH, SEVGI KILIç AND BIRGIT SAUER
10 Muslim women’s participation in the veil controversy:
Austria and the UK compared 186
LEILA HADJ ABDOU AND LINDA WOODHEAD
Conclusion: the veil as a case of value diversity and
European values 205
SAWITRI SAHARSO
Appendix 1: list of cited documents 217
Appendix 2: list of major frames and subframes of the
VEIL project’s frame analysis 233
Index 235
Figures and tables
Figures
4.1 Operationalization of ‘discursive Europ eanization’ 78
4.2 Euro peanization versus national fragm entat ion 89
Tables
7.1 Regulation of the hijab 137
7.2 Factors in favour of accommodation 145
A.1 List of frames and subframes 234
Contributors
Rikke Andreassen (PhD University of Toronto, Canada 2005) is Associate Pro
fessor at Roskilde University, denmark. Her research fields include gender,
queer, race/ethn i city, whiteness, sexuality, migration, nationality and media/
communication. She aims at combining her aca demic work with activism and
pub lic debates. She was a part of the Danish research team for the VEIL pro
ject: www.rikkeandreassen.dk.
İlker Ataç is Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science, Univer
sity of Vienna. His research fields include intern a tional polit ical econ omy,
migration pol itics, governance and labour migration. Recent pub lication:
Politik und Peripherie: Eine politikwissenschaftliche Einführung (Vienna:
Mandelbaum Verlag, 2010). He was a part of the Austrian research team for
the VEIL project.
Eirini Avramopoulou is a PhD candidate at the Department of Social Anthro
pology, University of cam bridge (Uk). Her research fields include gendered
borders and belonging, theory of human rights, affect and citi zen ship. She
completed her fieldwork research in istanbul where she exp lored issues
related to femi n ist, queer and religious women’s activism. She was research
assistant of the research proj ect VEIL.
Sabine Berghahn is (guest) Professor of Law and Political Science at the Hoch
schule für Wirtschaft und Recht, University of Applied Sciences in Berlin.
Her research fields are legal and femi n ist studies as well as politi cal science
concerning the relationship between law and politi cal institutions. In 2009 she
edited a book together with Petra Rostock about the headscarf con tro versy in
Ger many, Austria and Switzerland (Der Stoff, aus dem Konflikte sind,
Bielefeld: Transcript), and published a number of arti cles on this topic. In the
VEIL pro ject she headed the German research team.
Gül Çorbacıoğlu is a PhD student at the de part ment of Sociology at Middle
East Technical University (Ankara, Turkey). She was the junior researcher
for the VEIL pro ject at METU. Her research intere sts are gender and wom
en’s studies, social movements, socio logy of work, social stratification and
social classes.
