Gender Equality as an Essential French Value

The Case of Mme M

Bibliographic Data

ID6069271
AuthorsAnastasia Vakulenko (0000-0001-7829-7236, University of Dundee, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume9
Issue1
Pages143-150
Publication date2009-02-02
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHuman Rights Law Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1461-7781 • E-ISSN: 1744-1021
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/hrlr/ngn034
OpenAlexW2136812732
LanguageEN
Citations received4

Islamic dress, or veiling, is a vexed question in France, having been the stuff of international news for years. A key framing feature of the debate is the ideology of laïcité , a foundational principle of the French Republic, which denotes a normative aspiration of the total banishing of religion from the public sphere. 1Laïcité is commonly believed to reflect a ‘social process through which religion gradually loses its influence on the individual and society and which is called secularisation’, while providing ‘a system of public order ... under which religious freedom can flourish’. 2 Thus, in 2004, the French Parliament enacted a law which banned nearly all forms of Islamic dress in public primary and secondary schools as ‘ostentatious ( ostensible ) religious signs and dress’. 3 Sex equality was another important justification of the law as Muslim girls were believed to be coerced into veiling by their families and communities. Although the purview of this law is limited to public schools, it has helped perpetuate numerous types of unofficial discrimination of women who wear Islamic dress in today's France. 4

Framing (construction) · Freedom of Religion · Human rights · Ideology · Islam · Normative · Parliament · Political science · Politics · Public order · Public space · Public sphere · Secularization · Sharia · Sociology · Theology · Value (mathematics) · Gender Studies · History · Law · Multiculturalism, Politics, Migration, Gender · Philosophy

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