Responses to the Islamic headscarf in everyday interactions depend on sex and locale: A field experiment in the metros of Brussels, Paris, and Vienna on helping and involvement behaviors

The Islamic headscarf has been in the middle of heated debates in European society, yet little is known about its influence on day-to-day interactions. The aim of this randomized field experiment (n = 840) is to explore how the generally negative views that surround the hijab in Europe manifest in the behavior that people direct to hijab-wearing women in everyday situations. Using a helping scenario and videotapes of the resulting interactions, we measured whether passengers offered assistance and also various details of behavior that indicate interpersonal involvement. We predicted that in interaction with the covered confederate less help would be offered, that women’s level of nonverbal involvement would increase but men’s decrease, and that responses would be stronger in Paris, intermediate in Brussels, and weaker in Vienna. We analyzed the data using Generalized Linear Models estimated with Bayesian inference. While the headscarf does not produce concluding differences in “overt” helping, it does affect “subtle” cues of interpersonal involvement. In response to the hijab, women across sites increase, but men in Paris decrease, the level of involvement that they show with their nonverbal behavior.

THREATS OF THE HIJAB: HOW FRANCE’S COLONIAL FABRICATION OF THE ISLAMIC HEADSCARF AFFECTS ITS MUSLIM WOMEN

Discourse in France on the Islamic headscarf is omnipresent, even if its presence in schools is not. There are polarizing views in literature on whether Muslim women can truly integrate into French society if their religiosity and headscarf appears to go against the republic’s principles of equality, liberty, and fraternity. While this inquiry may be prevalent, there has been little interdisciplinary discussion on what invokes such negative reactions from the majority of the French population towards the Islamic headscarf. There has been even less discussion and reports on the impact of this reaction on Muslim women in France. This paper seeks to contribute to those apertures in scholarly literature. Using the French ban of 2004 as a case study, I explore how France’s colonial fabrication of the Islamic headscarf is pervasive and impacts the identity and livelihood of Muslim women in France. The term ‘hijab’ in this paper refers to Islamic headscarf Muslim women wear to meet religious requirements. I start by analyzing France’s colonial history with Algeria and its depiction of the hijab during that period. Then, I illustrate its importance in French understandings of the headscarf by highlighting parallels between arguments used for the ban on headscarves and France’s historical repackaging of the Muslim headdress. Concluding illustrations will reveal the harrowing impact of the hijab ban on the rights, identity, education and socioeconomic class of Muslim women in France.

The Political Meaning of the Hijab Style of Women Candidates

For several decades, an increasing number of Indonesian women have worn the Islamic headscarf, or hijab. This phenomenon has been the subject of considerable scholarly analysis, with most analysts seeing it as one sign of growing Islamisation in the country. Relatively few studies, however, have considered the extraordinary variation in hijab styles or analysed how they are used in electoral politics. Through a close study of women candidates running for legislative seats in the Cilacap district in Indonesia’s 2019 election, this article analyses the political meaning of the style of hijab chosen by candidates as part of their political imaging. In particular, the article distinguishes between ideological and instrumental uses of the hijab, noting that while some candidates wore particular styles of hijab in order to convey a broad ideological vision about the future of Indonesia, others were far more instrumental in their use, tailoring their hijab style to increase their electoral chances.

Islamic Headscarf Controversy in France

The controversy regarding the French ban on wearing of Islamic scarf in Public spaces has divided the French public for at least two decades. This paper uses culture as an explanatory framework to underscore that the issue of the headscarf has assumed greater significance because it has come to be viewed as a symbol of French Muslim identity. Subsequently, Muslim groups view the exclusion of the scarf from public spaces as exclusion of Muslim identity as part of French social fabric. The paper argues that culture which is the source of the issue also has the potential to resolve the dispute.

Islamic Veil: The Issue of Minors

An important aspect of the Albanian public debate on the exposure of religious symbols concerned minors. In fact, the proposed government law of 2011 was addressed to a category of public school education, that is, regarding students from kindergarten to secondary school. The Islamic veil was always at the center of the debate, but in this case the prohibition was justified as it was aimed at an age group that did not have the ability to make decisions and make choices independently, as in Muslim religion it is expected that a post-pubertal girl must wear a headscarf. In fact, in this case the decision-making passes to the parents, who have the right to educate their children according to the dictates of his own conscience. It is stressed that the same circumstance also applies to other religions, where the decision is always made by parents, such as baptism in the Catholic religion. In particular, the Article 24 of the Albanian Constitution, explicitly sanctions the freedom of each person to choose their belief and the prohibition that no one should be forced to participate in the life of a religious community or its practices. The question that arises in this case is whether this constitutional article also protects this category of subjects or only those who have reached the age of majority? The answer is complex and delicate, even to date the Albanian legislator has not remedied it since no one has appealed.Keyword: Albanian constitution, freedom of religion, religious symbols, Islamic headscarf, the right to educate your own children.

¿Mujer, pluralismo religioso e igualdad de género?: desafío jurídico en el siglo XXI en España

Resultando evidentes las desigualdades por razónde sexo existentes en el ámbito del fenómeno religioso dentro yfuera de nuestras fronteras, se antoja sobradamente interesanteafrontar el desafío jurídico de estudiar, en el contexto de la diversidadreligiosa, el papel de la mujer y su posible discriminación o noen dicho ámbito en nuestra España del siglo xxi. Dentro de la inmensadimensión que abarca el referido fenómeno, nos centraremosen los conflictos en los que sean parte los intereses de la mujercuando se desarrollen en el ámbito de las principales confesionescon arraigo en nuestro país. El objetivo principal de este estudioha sido describir los más importantes conflictos acaecidos y en losque se observa discriminación de la mujer en el ámbito religioso, asaber, principalmente el debate suscitado en torno al porte del veloislámico, pero también otras posibles discriminaciones en el ámbitoreligioso: los delitos de odio por razón de género en el ámbitoreligioso, el acceso a los puestos de autoridad eclesiástica por partede las mujeres en las distintas confesiones religiosas, la mutilacióngenital femenina…, dejando palpable la necesaria exigencia deigualdad de género que consideramos debería existir en el ámbitode la diversidad religiosa. Finalmente, vamos a plantear en este estudioaquello que, a nuestro entender, puede ser exigible a los Estados,y más concretamente al Estado español, para garantizar launiversalidad de los derechos de las mujeres en el marco de las religiones.Being evident the inequalities by reason of sex existingin the scope of the religious phenomenon inside and outsideour borders, it seems very interesting to face the legal challenge ofstudying, in the context of religious diversity, the role of womenand their possible discrimination or not in this area in our Spain ofthe xxi Century. Within the immense dimension encompassed bythis phenomenon, we will focus on the conflicts in which the interestsof women are part when they develop within the scope of themain confessions rooted in our country. The main objective of thisstudy has been to describe the most important conflicts that haveoccurred and in which there is discrimination against women inthe religious sphere, namely, mainly the debate about the wearingof the Islamic headscarf, but also other possible discriminations inthe religious sphere: hate crimes on the grounds of gender in thereligious sphere, access to positions of ecclesiastical authority bywomen in different religious confessions, female genital mutilation..., leaving palpable the necessary requirement of equality of genderthat we believe should exist in the area of religious diversity. Finally,we will propose in this study that which, in our opinion, maybe required from the States, and more specifically from the SpanishState, to guarantee the universality of women’s rights withinthe framework of religions.

Conforming Choices: Peer Influence, Adoption, and Interpretation of the Islamic Headscarf in Indonesia

This article examines the role of peer influence in structuring adoption and interpretation of the Islamic headscarf among young Muslim women in Indonesia. I argue that approaches to the jilbab fall into two broad-based categories of practice, each of whose practitioners play distinct roles in the social process driving both adoption and interpretation of the headscarf. Proactively pious Muslims act as “influencers” who encourage adoption by morality signaling (i.e., signaling “virtue” and “correct-ness” to others) in the immediate social environment. The reactively pious adopt the practice in response to the internalized urge to conform to new expectations within a pietized field, but then transform the practice by treating it as a commodified element in broader repertoires of fashion and femininity. The result is both a pietized social field and one in which piety has been informalized.

DRESS CODES IN SCHOOLS: A TALE OF HEADSCARVES AND HAIRSTYLES

In 2016 independent or private schools made headlines as learners protested the codes of conduct of various schools and the lack of accommodation of African hairstyles. The question of a school’s autonomy to enact a code of conduct and prohibit certain religious or cultural dress is not new and there has been worldwide controversy regarding schools banning the Islamic headscarf. This article examines the obligation of South African public and independent schools to accommodate the headscarf and diverse hairstyles. It argues that the Islamic headscarf is a central tenet of the Islamic faith protected by the constitutional right to religious freedom and that given the current guidelines on school uniforms, public schools are bound to accommodate the headscarf. The matter is more nuanced with independent schools that may be established in the pursuit of a religious ethos. The article argues that independent schools are equally prohibited from discrimination on religious and cultural grounds and must demonstrate the justifiability of the lack of accommodation. While these bans may be allowed, the historical inequalities in education and the socio-economic context in which the provision of excellent education still favours certain races must be weighed carefully against the school’s religious vision.Hairstyles are a more complex matter given their diversity. The article argues that disputes as to whether a hairstyle forms part of a culture are likely to become difficult given the porous and evolving nature of culture. Public and independent schools are rather urged to re-evaluate their codes of conduct. Codes that favour Eurocentric notions of neatness may indirectly discriminate on race, a completely untenable situation in a constitutional South Africa. These codes must be revised to celebrate and affirm our diversity rather than be used to exclude and alienate segments of society.