Patriarchy as the exclusive domain of the other: The veil controversy, false projection and cultural racism

International Journal of Constitutional Law

Volumn 10, Issue 2, 2012, Pages 411-428

  Mancini, Susanna ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF BOLOGNA   (Italy)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84865356286     PISSN: 14742640     EISSN: 14742659     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/icon/mor061     Document Type: Article

References (55)

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2. S EYLA B ENHABIB, T HE C LAIMS OF C ULTURE E QUALITY AND D IVERSITY IN THE G LOBAL E RA 84 (2002).
3. For an illuminating overview of this debate, see Ayelet Shachar, Feminism and Multiculturalism: Mapping the Terrain, in M ULTICULTURALISM AND P OLITICAL T HEORY 115 (Anthony Simon Laden and David Owen eds., 2007).
4. See, in this respect, the fascinating implications of the different veils in terms of fashion: Annelies Moors, Islamic Fashion in Europe: Religious Conviction, Aesthetic Style, and Creative Consumption, 1 E NCOUNTERS 175 (2009
5. J OAN W ALLACH S COTT, T HE P OLITICS OF THE V EIL 154 (2007).
6. M AX H ORKHEIMER and T HEODOR W. A DORNO, D IALECTIC O F E NLIGHTENMENT (John Cumming trans., Verso, 1997) (1944).
7. Susanna Mancini, The Power of Symbols and Symbols as Power. Secularism and Religion as Guarantors of Cultural Homogeneity, 30 C ARDOZO L. R EV. 2629 (2009
8. Susanna Mancini, The Crucifi x Rage: Supra-national Constitutionalism Bumps Against the Counter-Majoritarian Diffi culty, 6 E UR. C ONST. L. R EV. 6 (2010
9. Susanna Mancini, The Tempting of Europe, the Seduction of the Cross, in C ONSTITUTIONALISM AND S ECULARISM IN AN A GE OF R ELIGIOUS R EVIVAL (Susanna Mancini and Michel Rosenfeld eds., forthcoming 2012).
10. There is an extremely rich literature attempting to interpret the signifi cances of the different veils. The wide range of aesthetic goals, political ideologies, economic constraints, personal choices, and opportunities that can be provided by the veil, are well represented in T HE V EIL W OMEN W RITERS ON ITS H ISTORY, L ORE, AND P OLITICS (Jennifer Heath ed., 2008).
11. Leila Ahmed, Western Ethnocentrism and Perceptions of the Harem, 8 F EMINIST S TUD. 521 (1982).
12. Will Hutton, Why the West is wary of Muslims, T HE O BSERVER, January 11, 2004, http://www .guardian. co. uk/world/2004/jan/11/religion. uk
13. Pnina Werbner, Islamophobia: Incitement to religious hatred-legislating for a new fear?, 21 A NTHROPOLOGY T ODAY 5, 6 (2005).
14. ED WARD SA ID, OR IENTALISM (1978).
15. Maleiha Malik, Feminism and its "other": Female Autonomy in an Age of Difference, 30 C ARDOZO L. R EV. 2613 (2009).
16. Etienne Balibar, Is there a "Neo-Racism"?, in NA TION, CL ASS, AM BIGUOUS ID ENTITIES 17, 21-22 (Etienne Balibar and Immanuel Maurice Wallerstein eds., 1991), drawing the difference between cultural and biological racism. As an example of cultural racism, see how Samuel Huntington explains that the failure of "Mexicans and other Latinos" to integrate in the American societies is due to "irreconcilable cultural differences" with "American identity," and specifi cally to Latino's cultural values, namely "[l]ack of initiative, self reliance and ambition, and little use for education," in Samuel Huntington, The Hispanic Challenge, F OREIGN P OL ' Y R EV. 30 (March-April 2004).
17. LE ILA A HMED, W OMEN AND G ENDER IN I SLAM H ISTORICAL R OOTS OF A M ODERN D EBATE 155 (1992) [hereinafter W OMEN AND G ENDER].
18. M EYDA Y EGENOGLU, C OLONIAL F ANTASIES T OWARDS A F EMINIST R EADING OF O RIENTALISM 56 (1998).
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20. Dahlab v. Switzerland, App. No. 42393/98, Eur. Ct. H.R. (2001).
21. Sahin v. Turkey, App. No. 44774/98, 44 Eur. H.R. Rep. 5 (2007).
22. See the research done by anthropologist John Bowen, a world authority in comparative social studies of Islam in Student Life, http://www. studlife. com/news//09/25/france - asks - anthropologist - to - testify -on - burqa - debate /2009
23. Assemblée Nationale, Rapport d'information no. 2262, Au nom de la mission d'information sur la pratique du port du voile intégral sur le territoire national, 26 janvier 2010, at 14 (my translation) [hereinafter Rapport d'information no. 2262]. Paradoxically, in 2008, the French Conseil d ' État denied fully veiled Faiza M. French nationality for adopting a radical practice of her religion (manifested in her wearing the niqab) that was considered incompatible with basic French values, particularly with the principle of gender equality. Conseil d ' État [CE] [highest administrative court] May 26, 2008 (Fr.), available at http://www. conseil - etat. fr/cde/fr/selection - de - ecisions - du - conseil - d - etat/seance - du - 26 - mai - 2008 - lecture - du - 27 - juin - -. html .2008
24. See, e.g., the insightful work by O RNELLA M OSCUCCI, T HE S CIENCE OF W OMEN G YNECOLOGY AND G ENDER IN E NGLAND, 1800-1929 (1990).
25. A YELET S HACHAR, M ULTICULTURAL J URISDICTIONS C ULTURAL D IFFERENCES AND W OMEN 's R IGHTS 56-57 (2002).
26. Frantz Fanon, Algeria Unveiled, in T HE N EW L EFT R EADER 164 (Carl Oglesby ed., Grove Press, 1969
27. Susan Moller Okin, Is Muliculturalism Bad for Women?, B OSTON R EVIEW, October-November 1997
28. See, e.g., the letter in the Elle magazine in December 2003, signed by sixty prominent French women (intellectuals, actresses, academics, and politicians), including the former Minister for Women's Rights Yvette Roudy, in support of a ban on the veil. The letter stated that "[t]o accept the Islamic veil at school and in the public administration is to legitimize a visible symbol of the submission of women in the places where the state must be the guarantor of strict equality between the sexes." Le magazine Elle lance un appel contre le voile, E LLE, December 5, 2003.
29. Leti Volpp, Feminism versus Multiculturalism, 101 CO LUM. L. RE V. 1181 (2001)
30. See, e.g., W INDOWS oF F AITH M USLIM W OMEN S CHOLAR -A CTIVISTS IN N ORTH A MERICA (Gisela Webb ed., 2000); A MINA W ADUD, Q UR 'A N AND W OMAN R EREADING T HE S ACRED T EXT FROM A W OMAN ' S P ERSPECTIVE (2d ed. 1999).
31. Azizah al-Hibri, Is Western Patriarchal Feminism Good for Third World/Minority Women? (A response to Susan Okin's Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?), B OSTON R EVIEW, October-November 1997.
32. Regina (Shabina Begum) v. Governors of Denbigh High Sch. [2006] UKHL 15, 1 AC 100 (H.L.) (appeal taken from Eng.). §§ 96 and 97. The case is made particularly convoluted by the circumstance that the school in question had adopted a particular uniform policy that admitted the shalwar kameeze, which is slightly less covering than the jibab. 2007
33. CA THARINE A. M AC K INNON, TO WARDS A FE MINIST TH EORY O F T HE ST ATE 195 et seq. (1989).
34. According to Ornella Moscucci, "muscular Christianity" was the goal, attainable through strict mental and physical discipline. See Clitoridectomy, Circumcision, and the Politics of Sexual Pleasure, in S EXUALITIES IN V ICTORIAN B RITAIN 63-65 (Andrew H. Miller and James Eli Adams eds., 1996).
35. M ARNIA L AZREG, Q UESTIONING THE V EIL O PEN L ETTERS TO M USLIM W OMEN 122 (2009).
36. P ETER G AY, V OLTAIRE ' S P OLITICS 353 (1959).
37. A more radical feminist critique has also powerfully argued however that the Enlightenment e ven in theory promotes a fraternity among men, which excludes women from power, thus making genuine equality for women structurally impossible. See generally C AROL P ATEMAN, T HE S EXUAL C ONTRACT (1988).
38. Sigmund Freud, The "Uncanny", in T HE S TANDARD E DITION OF THE C OMPLETE P SYCHOLOGICAL W ORKS OF S IGMUND F REUD, V OLUME XVII (1917-1919): A N I NFANTILE N EUROSIS AND O THER W ORKS (James Strachey ed. and trans., 1955).217
39. Susannah Heschel, Confi gurations of Patriarchy, Judaism, and Nazism in German Feminist Thought, in G ENDER AND J UDAISM, T HE T RANSFORMATION oF T RADITION 149 (Tamar Rudavsky ed., 1995). Interestingly, Heschel views the failure of German feminism to provide a responsible analysis of Nazism and anti-Semitism as connected to the rise on anti-Semitism within the German left
40. Riv-Ellen Prell, Anti-Semitism, in EN CYCLOPEDIA O F WO MEN A ND RE LIGION I N NO RTH AM ERICA, Vol. II 588, 596 (Rosemary Skinner Keller, Rosemary Radford Ruether, and Marie Cantlon eds., 2006)
41. Judith Plaskow, Christian Feminism and Anti-Judaism, in TH E C OMING O F LI LITH E SSAYS O N FE MINISM, J UDAISM AND S EXUAL E THICS 1972-2003 89 (Judith Plaskow and Donna Berman eds., 2005)
42. Susannah Heschel, Anti-Judaism in Christian Feminist Theology, 5 T IKKUM 25 (1990).
43. Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza and David Tracy, The Holocaust as Interruption and the Christian Return to History, 175 C ONCILIUM ("The Holocaust as Interruption") 86 (1984). See also Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, The Bible, the Global Context, and the Discipleship of Equals, in R ECONSTRUCTING C HRISTIAN T HEOLOGY (Rebecca S. Chopp and Mark Lewish Taylor eds., 1994).
44. According to Fallaci (a world-class political interviewer whose subjects included Yasir Arafat, Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi, Haile Selassie, Deng Xiaoping and Henry Kissinger): I am convinced that the situation is politically substantially the same as in 1938, with the pact in Munich, when England and France did not understand a thing. With the Muslims, we have done the same thing.. Look at the Muslims: in Europe they go on with their chadors and their burkas and their djellabahs. They go on with the habits preached by the Koran, they go on with mistreating their wives and daughters. They refuse our culture, in short, and try to impose their culture, or so-called culture, on us.. I reject them, and this is not only my duty toward my culture. Toward my values, my principles, my civilization. It is not only my duty toward my Christian roots. It is my duty toward freedom and toward the freedom fi ghter I am since I was a little girl fi ghting as a partisan against Nazi-Fascism. Islamism is the new Nazi-Fascism. With Nazi-Fascism, no compromise is possible. No hypocritical tolerance. And those who do not understand this simple reality are feeding the suicide of the West. See Margaret Talbod, Oriana Fallaci directs her fury toward Islam, T HE N EW Y ORKER, June 5, 2008, available at http://www. newyorker. com/archive/2006/06/05/060605fa_fact ? currentPage = all
45. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Interview by David Cohen, E VENING S TANDARD, February 7, available at http://www. islamophobia - watch. com/islamophobia - watch/2007/2/7/violence - is - inherent - in - islam - it - is - a - cult - of - death. html1997
46. A YAAN H IRSI A LI, T HE C AGED V IRGIN A N E MANCIPATION P ROCLAMATION FOR W OMEN AND I SLAM 35 (2006).
47. KW OK PU I L AN, PO ST -C OLONIAL I MAGINATION A ND FE MINIST T HEOLOGY 95 (2005).
48. T ERTULLIAN, T REATISES ON M ARRIAGE AND R EMARRIAGE T O H IS W IFE. A N E XHORTATION TO C HASTITY AND M ONOGAMY (William P. Le Saint trans., Paulist Press, 1951) ("In pain shall you bring forth children, woman, and you shall turn to your husband and he shall rule over you. And do you not know that you are Eve? God's sentence hangs still over all your sex and His punishment weighs down upon you. You are the devil's gateway; you are she who fi rst violated the forbidden tree and broke the law of God. It was you who coaxed your way around him whom the devil had not the force to attack. With what ease you shattered that image of God: Man! Because of the death you merited, even the Son of God had to die.. Woman, you are the gate to hell.")
49. Gesetz Zur ÄNderung Des Schulgesetzes, April 1, 2004, And Gesetz Zur ÄNderung Des Kindergartengesetzes, February 14, 2006
50. Gesetz Nr. 1555 Zur ÄNderung Des Gesetzes Zur Ordnung Des Schulwesens Im Saarland (Schulordnungsgesetz), June 23, 2004. In the explanation to the draft law, it is stated that the regulation is not limited to Headscarves, However, The Wearing Of Christian And Jewish Symbols Remains Possible.
51. Gesetz Zur Sicherung Der Staatlichen NeutralitäT, October 18, 2004.
52. Gesetz Zur ÄNderung Des Bayerischen Gesetzes ÜBer Das Erziehungs- Und Unterrichtswesen, November 23, 2004.
53. Erstes Gesetz Zur ÄNderung Des Schulgesetzes FüR Das Land Nordrhein-Westfalen, June 13, 2006.
54. Hum. Rts. Watch (Citing The Explanatory Comments In The Bavarian Government Draft Law, Gesetzesentwurf Der Staatsregierung zur Änderung des Bayerischen Gesetzes über das Erziehungs-und Unterrichtswesen, Bavarian Parliament, 15Th Election Period, Drucksache 15/368, Feb. 18, 2004).
55. Bayerischer Verwaltungsgerichtshof [Bayvgh] [Bavarian Higher Administrative Court], Jan. 15, 2007, No. Vf. 11-VII-05, available at http://www. bayern. verfassungsgerichtshof. de