Baldi Burqa avenger.pdf (259.69 kB)
'Burqa avenger': law and religious practices in secular space
The current debate over the hijab is often understood through the lens of a ‘clash of civilizations’ between a tolerant ‘secular’ ‘West’ and a chauvinist ‘religious’ ‘East’. The article argues that this polarization is the result of a specific secular semiotic understanding of religion and religious practices which is nowadays embedded in western law. In my analysis, secular’s normative assumptions, played around the control of women’s bodies and the definition of religious symbols in the public sphere, work as a marker of ‘citizenship’ and ‘racialized religious belonging’. Through women’s bodies, western/secular law creates a link between gender, religion, ethnicity and belonging which forms a specific law and religious subject. Thus, secularism emerges not as the separation between private and public, state and religion, but as the reconfiguration of religious practices and sensitivities in the public secular space through the control of the visible.
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Accepted version
Journal
Law and CritiqueISSN
0957-8536Publisher
KluwerExternal DOI
Issue
1Volume
29Page range
31-56Department affiliated with
- Law Publications
Research groups affiliated with
- Sussex Centre for Human Rights Research Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2017-11-20First Open Access (FOA) Date
2018-10-26First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2017-11-20Usage metrics
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