Ce que nous voile le voile/ Unveiling the veil

Sandra Rousseau

In 2004 and 2011, laws were passed in France that banned the wearing of “ostentatious” religious signs in both schools and public spaces. These two laws have been widely debated in French and international media and have been discussed in terms relative to justice, equality and ethics. Yet it seems that the historical underpinnings for these laws have been eclipsed or merged with a contemporary reading of the world that does not consider the specificity of the French Republican Tradition which emerged around the time of the French Revolution (1789). Rousseau will try to make connections between the French idea of separation of church and State and the passing of the 2004 and 2011 laws and will then address the cultural impact of the Muslim community in France, focusing on the history of North-African immigration and the renewed outbreaks of racism and discriminations from the 1980s onward.

Sandra Rousseau is a third-year doctoral student at Penn State University. She arrived at Penn State in 2007 as the exchange student from Lyon II where she completed her Master’s degree in American civilization. She then completed a Master’s in French Civilization on problems surrounding the concept of “the duty to remember.” Her dissertation research focuses on the practices and functions of humor in mediating and creating Franco-Algerian memories. This project enables the intersection of several of her fields of interest: memory, history, humor, popular culture, decolonization and equality.

Veil (Hijab) from an Islamic Perspective

Melek H. Yazici

This session will explain the Islamic perspective governing the headscarf based on the Quran and the hadith, which are two primary sources of Islamic law. The origin of the veil and different types of headscarf found in the Muslim world today will be discussed. The session will further examine the significance of the veil for Muslim women, and why these women see the headscarf ban as a form of oppression with references to real stories.

Melek H. Yazici works as a Strategic Sourcing Analyst at the University of Pittsburgh. She graduated from Pitt with a Finance degree, an Economics minor, and a Global Economy and Governance certificate from the Global Studies Center. She is currently pursuing an MBA at the Katz Graduate School of Business. She translated newspaper articles and court rulings with regards to the headscarf ban for Turkish Women’s Rights Association against Discrimination called AKDER and was one of the translators of the book “European Court of Human Rights under the Light of Leyla Sahin Decision” from Turkish to English which examines the case decision on the headscarf ban in Turkey.

French Headscarf Law:  Policy and Law

Courtney J. Restemayer

This session will explain the policies and principles of the French “headscarf ban” law, summarize the significance of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) affiliation, and discuss the human rights implications of the law.