The Dispute Over the Veil. The Conflict Between Laicism (The Separation of State and Religion) and Religious Tolerance

Abstract

In Germany and in other European countries, a ban on headscarves is in essence a ban on working for those Muslim women who wear headscarves, and also entails the social marginalisation of these women. In other countries, a requirement to wear a headscarf not only leads to social condemnation and a ban on women who refrain from wearing one from working, but also presents a risk to their lives. A political regulation on clothing for women’s hair therefore has a gender and ethnopolitical aspect, and, at the end of the day, a security policy aspect.

In part, the headscarf is politicised due to the fact that some Islamic organisations attempt to enforce it on Muslim women, or on women in general. However, it ultimately takes on a political nature when the legislator forbids it or makes it obligatory. The headscarf can also be de-politicised, however, if one treats it as being simply an item of clothing worn at the discretion of the individual. This opens up numerous political options when it comes to the headscarf issue, which will probably play an important role in public debate for years and even decades to come. In Germany and Europe, it is always the fundamental question that is at issue as to whether immigrant ethno-religious minorities must assimilate to a large degree, or whether the legal, political and social integration of the immigrants may also include the publicly demonstrated preservation of ethno-religious difference. By contrast, the subject of debate in Turkey and Bosnia is whether the laicism decreed by the state can be replaced by a greater degree of tolerance towards religion, whereby at the same time, a decisive step is taken towards preventing the risk of a theocratic dictatorship. For the latter, the obligation to wear a headscarf is an important symbol of power in terms of its ideas, which are an infringement of human rights, about the role of women.

From the history of laicism, state religions and religious tolerance, the three fundamental political positions emerge of excluding religion and religious communities from state life, the dominant role of a religion or confession in a state and not only in society, and religious toleration and equality between a religious-confessional majority and minority.

An advisable course is a policy of conscious de-politicisation of the headscarf and the acknowledgement of ethno-religious difference in public life as well as in schools, although it can be assumed that such a policy will not hold sway in Germany, France and several other countries for a long time to come.