Reconciling the ḥijāb within laïcité France

Abstract

What transpires when religious freedom and expression extend from the privacy of one's home and into the public sphere? Recent laws passed in France regarding the ḥijāb and face-veil vividly illustrate the tensions between a “secular” society and the right to religious freedom and expression. Moreover, Muslim women have been confronted with having to choose between conforming to French traditions of laïcité and their right to religious freedom and expression in the public sphere. As such, the broader question that this paper addresses is, to what extent are Muslims able to reconcile elements of Shari'a law that are incompatible with the laws of the state in which they reside?

Keywords:

• Islam
• Muslim
• hijāb
• burqa
• niqāb
• veil
• headscarf
• secularism
• laïcité
• France
• Qur'an
• fatwa
• ḥadith
• Shari'a
• Headscarf Affair
• L'Affaire du Foulard

Notes

¹Tom Griffith (ed) and Abdullah Yusuf Ali (trans), The Holy Qur'an 2:286 (Sūrah Al-Baqarah, Wordsworth 2000).

²“Muslim women wear a wide variety of garments covering their heads and faces. The most common forms include the ḥijāb – or headscarf – leaving the face exposed; the niqāb, covering most of the face and leaving only the eyes exposed; the jilbāb, a headscarf connected to a more complete body garment; the chador, a full black body garment worn primarily in Iran; and the burqa, covering the body and the face in its entirety,” worn primarily in Afghanistan. Throughout this paper, the terms veil, ḥijāb and headscarf are used interchangeably, as well as the terms niqāb, burqa, and face-veil. R. Vance Eaton, ‘Thinly Veiled: Institutional Messages in the Language of Secularism in Public Schools in France and the United States’ (2009) 6 S.s. Journal of International Law and Business 299, 300 n.6.

³See generally Fatemeh Hajihosseini, Book Review – Seyla Benhabib, Another Cosmopolitanism: Hospitality, Sovereignty, and Democratic Iterations, 9 German Law Journal 819, 821–2 (noting the concerns of both the French government and Muslim women).

⁴See Louis Del Duca, Patrick Del Duca and Gianluca Gentili, ‘Introduction to the IALS Conference on Comparative Constitutional Law’ (2010) 28 Penn. St. Int'l L. Rev. 293, 303–4; Adrien Katherine Wing & Monica Nigh Smith, ‘Critical Race Feminism Lifts the Veil?: Muslim Women, France, and the Headscarf Ban’ (2006) 39 UC Davis L. Rev. 743, 775–6.

⁵Zohreh T Sullivan, ‘Eluding the Feminist, Overthrowing the Modem? Transformations in Twentieth-Century Iran’ in Lila Abu-Lughod (ed) Remaking Women: Feminism and Modernity in the Middle East (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ 2001) 228.

⁶Ibid.

⁸Griffith and Ali (n 1) 24:30–1; also ibid., 24:60 (referring to the notion of ḥijāb for elderly women).

⁷See also Griffith and Ali (n 1) 33:53. Although this verse is in reference to the Prophet's (pbuh) wives, some scholars have interpreted it to apply to all Muslim women; also Abdullahi Ahmed An-na'im, ‘Human Rights in the Muslim World: Socio-Political Conditions and Scriptural Imperatives – A Preliminary Inquiry’ (1990) 3 Harv Hum Rts J 13 n 60.

⁹Abdullah Yusuf Ali, The Meaning of the Holy Quran (Amana Publications, Maryland 1997) 873 (“But on account of the differentiation of the sexes in nature, temperaments, and social life, a greater amount of privacy is required for women than for men, especially in the matter of dress and the uncovering of the bosom.”).

¹⁰Ibid.

¹¹H. Ali Mohammed, Laws and Politics in Islam 48 (2009), available at https://www.aiu.edu/applications/DocumentLibraryManager/upload/H.%20Ali%20Mohammed%20THESIS.doc

¹²Griffith and Ali (n 1) 33:59.

¹³See “An Islamic Perspective on Women's Dress” by Muslim Women's League, December 1997, available at http://www.mwlusa.org/topics/dress/hijab.html

¹⁴The word jilbāb refers to outer garments, which was commonly understood to mean an outer garment, a long gown covering the whole body, or a cloak covering the neck and bosom. Ali (n 9) 873.

¹⁵Ibid.

¹⁶See “An Islamic Perspective on Women's Dress” by Muslim Women's League, December 1997, available at http://www.mwlusa.org/topics/dress/hijab.html

¹⁷Ibid.

¹⁸See generally Suzanne Haneef, What Everyone Should Know About Islam And Muslims (Kazi Publications 1995) 189.

¹⁹Given the vast ḥadīth literature, for the purposes of this section the four Sunni books of ḥadīths are considered: Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, Sunan Abū-Dāwūd, and Mālik's Muwaṭṭa', along with the Musnad collection of Ibn ḥanbal. While shedding light on ḥijāb in Islam, excluded from this discussion is ḥijāb in the limited context of prayer, the ḥajj pilgrimage, and Eid, which have not been subject to controversy. In addition, excluded from this discussion are Shī'ah ḥadīth.

²⁰Ahmad Hasan (trans), ‘Book XXXII (Book of Clothing): ḥadīth no. 4092’ Sunan Abu Dawd <http://www.cmje.org/religious-texts/hadith/abudawud/>.

²¹L Clarke, ‘ḥijāb According to the ḥadīth: Text and Interpretation’ in Sajida Sultana Alvi, Homa Hoodfar, and Sheila McDonough (eds) The Muslim Veil in North America: Issues and Debates (Women's Press, Toronto, Ontario 2003) 220.

²²Ibid., 220–1 (noting that Abū-Dāwūd points out that the link to ‘Ā’ishah (the Prophet's wife), Khālid ibn Durayk, was not born in her time (lam yudrik)).

²³Hasan (n 20) ḥadīth nos 4089–90; also Sahih Bukhari, Vol. 6, Book LX, Tafseer of the Prophet (pbuh) (Prophetic Commentary on the Qur'an), ḥadīth no. 282 <http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/crcc/engagement/resources/texts/muslim/hadith/bukhari/060.sbt.html>.

²⁴Hasan (n 20) ḥadīth no. 4091.

²⁵Ibid., ḥadīth no. 4104; also Clarke (n 21) 218 (citing Ibn ḥanbal, Musnad, Musmad al-Anṣār, ḥadīth Usāmah ibn Zayd, ḥadīth no. 20, 787).

²⁶Ibid.

²⁷Ibid.

²⁸Clarke (n 21) 219.

²⁹Haneef (n 18) 189.

³⁰Steven R. Houchin, ‘Confronting the Shadow: Is Forcing a Muslim Witness to Unveil in a Criminal Trial a Constitutional Right, or an Unreasonable Intrusion?' (2009) 36 Pepperdine L. Rev. 823, 834.

³¹Nusrat Choudhury, ‘From the Stasi Commission to the European Court of Human Rights: L'Affaire du Foulard and the Challenge of Protecting the Rights of Muslim Girls’ (2007) 16 Colum J Gender L 199, 218.

³²Ibid.

³³See below where the fourth part of this paper illustrates the disagreement among scholars on the face-veil.

³⁴Haneef (n 18) 220.

³⁵For example, Sunan Abū-Dāwūd, Book X, Kitāb Al-Manasik Wa'l-Hajj (Te Rites of Hajj), ḥadīth no. 1829, available at http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/crcc/engagement/resources/texts/muslim/hadith/abudawud/010.sat.html (“Riders would pass us when we accompanied the Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him) while we were in the sacred state (wearing ihrām). When they came by us, one of us would let down her outer garment from her head over her face, and when they had passed on, we would uncover our faces.”); Sahih Bukhari, Vol. 5, Book LIX, Al-Maghaazi (Military Expeditions led by the Prophet (pbuh)), ḥadīth no. 462, available at http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/crcc/engagement/resources/texts/muslim/hadith/abudawud/010.sat.html.

³⁶Kimberly Hamilton, Patrick Simon, and Clara Veniard, ‘The Challenge of French Diversity’ in Migration Information Source (November 2004) <http://www.migrationinformation.org/feature/print.cfm?ID=266>; Sarah Bienkowski, ‘Has France Taken Assimilation Too Far? Muslim Beliefs, French National Values, and the June 27, 2008 Conseil D'Etat Decision on Mme. M.,’ 11 Rutgers J. L. & Religion 437, 442 (2010).

³⁷THE OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE, THE SITUATION OF MUSLIMS IN THE EU: CITIES REPORT 19 (2007), available at <http://www.soros.org/sites/default/files/museucitiesfra_20080101_0.pdf>, also Olivier Monso and Thibaut de Saint Pol, ‘Geographic Origin of Individuals in French Population Censuses’ in Courrier des statistiques (English series no. 13, 2007).

³⁸ The Official French Portal <http://www.france.fr/en/knowing/society/demography/article/graphic-french-demographics-few-figures>.

³⁹Open Society (n 37) 6; also Center on the United States and Europe Annual Conference (Brookings Institute 2007) 102 <http://www.brookings.edu/!/media/Files/events/2007/0430europe/20070430.pdf>.

⁴⁰Open Society (n 37) 11–12; also Michel Gurfinkiel, ‘Islam in France: The French Way of Life is in Danger’ (1997) March Middle East Q; Sebastian Poulter, ‘Muslim Headscarves in School: Contrasting Legal Approaches in England and France’ (1997) 17 OJLS 43.

⁴¹Open Society (n 37) 12; Adrien Katherine Wing and Monica Nigh Smith, ‘Critical Race Feminism Lifts the Veil: Muslim Women, France, and the Headscarf Ban’ (2006) 39 UC Davis L Rev 743, 752.

⁴²Ibid.; but see Stephanie Giry, ‘France and Its Muslims’ (2006) 85 Foreign Affairs 87, 88 (claiming that approximately one-half to three-fifths of all Muslims are French citizens); Open Society (n 37) 11–12.

⁴³Open Society (n 37) 23.

⁴⁴Ibid., 26.

⁴⁵Liz Fekete, Anti-Muslim Racism and the European Security State. Race & Class 46(1), p. 25 (2004).

⁴⁶Mohammad Mazher Idriss, ‘Laicite and the Banning of the “Hjab”’ (2005) 25 L Stud 260, 282 n 89.

⁴⁷Joan Wallach Scott, The Politics of the Veil (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ 2007) 3; also Choudhury (n 31) 218 (noting that estimates range from 1200 to a few thousand, with the highest estimates representing 1% of the Muslims who wear the headscarf or engage in ḥijāb).

⁴⁸See “What's hiding behind France's proposed burqa ban?” The Monitor's Editorial Board/January 27, 2010, available at <http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2010/0127/What-s-hiding-behind-France-s-proposed-burqa-ban>; Steven Erlanger, ‘Parliament Moves France Closer to a Ban on Facial Veils’ New York Times (13 July 2010) A6.

⁴⁹Ibid.

⁵⁰Scott (n 47) 97.

⁵¹See example U.S. CONST. amend I (emphasis added).

⁵²For a discussion on the notion of laïcité and that of American secularism, see Scott (n 47); also Idriss (n 46) 260.

⁵³Choudhury (n 20) 252.

⁵⁴Idriss (n 46) 261–2.

⁵⁵Ibid. 262.

⁵⁶For example, Conseil d'État, 27 juin 2008, no. 286798, Faiza M, available at: http://www.conseil-etat.fr/ce/urispd/index.ac-100820.shtml (denial of citizenship of a Moroccan immigrant on the basis of, among other things, her refusal no longer to wear the niqāb).

⁵⁷Idriss (n 46) 267.

⁵⁸Ibid.

⁵⁹Choudhury (n 31) 226.

⁶⁰Bronwyn Winter, ‘Secularism Aboard the Titanic: Feminists and the Debate over the Hijab in France’ (2006) 32 Feminist Stud 279, 282.

⁶¹Sebastian Poulter, Ethnicity, Law and Human Rights: The English Experience, Oxford University Press, USA (April 23, 1998) 387.

⁶²Ibid.

⁶³Choudhury (n 31) 226.

⁶⁴Aliah Abdo, ‘The Legal Status of Hijab in the United States: A Look at the Sociopolitical Influences on the Legal Right to Wear the Muslim Headscarf’ (2008) 5 Hastings Race & Poverty L J 441, 457; also Ibid., 226–7; also Wing and Smith (n 42) 756 (noting that “a ban ‘would only be permissible under two circumstances: if the wearing of these symbols [was] associated with missionary activities; or if it should become apparent that other members of the same religious community were feeling morally pressurized to conform’”).

⁶⁵Choudhury (n 31) 227.

⁶⁶Abdo (n 64) 457; also Choudhury (n 31) 227–8; Scott (n 47) 25.

⁶⁷Ibid., 229; also Poulter (n 40) 60–2 (discussing developments following the Conseil d'État's avis).

⁶⁸Choudhury (n 31) 229–30.

⁶⁹Ibid.

⁷⁰Ibid., 230.

⁷¹Ibid., 231–2.

⁷²Ibid., 231.

⁷³Ibid., 233; also Winter (n 60) 283 (providing a list of other recommendations).

⁷⁴Ibid.

⁷⁵Ibid., 199; also ‘Law No. 2004-22 of Mar. 15, 2004’ (2004) 17 March Journal Officiel de la République Française 5190 (“Dans les écoles, les collèges et les lycées publics, le port de signes ou tenues par lesquels les élèves manifestent ostensiblement une appartenance religieuse est interdit. Le règlement intèrieur rappelle que la mise en oeuvre d'une procedure disciplinaire est précédée d'un dialogue avec l'élevé.”).

⁷⁶Choudhury (n 31) 233–4.

⁷⁷Wing and Smith (n 4), 756–7.

⁷⁸‘Law No. 2010-1192 of Oct. 11, 2010’ (2010) 12 October Journal Official de la République Française <http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/13/dossiers/dissimulation_visage_espace_public.asp> (“Nul ne peut, dans l'espace public, porter une tenue destinée à dissimuler son visage.”).

⁷⁹IRR European News Team, ‘The Background to the French Parliamentary Commission on the Burqa and Niqab’ (Institute of Race Relations n.d.) <http://irr.org.uk/pdf2/ERA_BriefingPaper3.pdf>.

⁸⁰Ibid.

⁸¹Siobhán Mullally, ‘Civic Integration, Migrant Women and the Veil: At the Limits of Rights’ (2011) 74 Mod L Rev 27, 28.

⁸²IRR European News Team (n 79) 1.

⁸³Steven Erlanger, ‘Parliament Moves France Closer to a Ban on Facial Veils’ New York Times (13 July 2010) A6; Alison Culliford, ‘French National Assembly approves ban on face veils’ (14 July 2010) <http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul/14/world/la-fg-france-veil-20100714>.

⁸⁴CNN, ‘French Senate Approves Burqa Ban’ (24 September 2010) <http://articles.cnn.com/2010-09-14/world/france.burqa.ban_1_burqa-overt-religious-symbols-ban-last-year>.

⁸⁵Erlanger (n 83).

⁸⁶CNN (n 84).

⁸⁷Aljazeera News, ‘Tantawi: France has Right to Ban Hijab’ (13 December 2003) <http://english.aljazeera.net/archive/2003/12/20084916165259955.html> accessed 25 April 2011.

⁸⁸Ran A. Levy, ‘Muslim Reactions to the Headscarf Controversy in France: Implications for the Umma and the Boundaries of Muslim Identity’ in Bruce Maddy-Weitzman (ed) Telaviv Notes (1 August 2010) <http://www.aftau.org/site/DocServer/TANotes_August_1_2010.pdf?docID=11502> 2.

⁸⁹Ibid.

⁹⁰Ibid.

⁹¹Ibid.

⁹²Ibid.; also Islamopedia Online, ‘Egyptian Religious Leaders Says French President Has Right to Ban Burka’ (24 March 2010) <http://www.islamopediaonline.org/news/egyptian-religious-leaders-says-french-president-has-right-ban-burka>.

⁹³Levy (n 88).

⁹⁴Ibid.

⁹⁵Ibid.

⁹⁶Islamopedia Online, ‘In Response to Sheikh al-Azhar's Denial of the Requirement of Women Wearing Face-veil (Niqab)’ (22 April 2010) <http://www.islamopediaonline.org/fatwa/response-sheikh-al-azhars-denial-requirement-women-wearing-face-veil-niqab>; also Kuwait Times, ‘Fatwa Stirs Heated Debate Over Face-Veiling in Kuwait’ (9 October 2009) <http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=MTQwMTY5MzI5Mg> (noting that Tantawi's fatwā triggered a fatwā by Kuwait's fatwā authority at the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs). For references to the ḥadīths cited by Sheikh al-Ahmad note n 35 and accompanying text.

¹⁰²Ibid.

⁹⁷IOL is among many institutions that can answer questions for the local Muslim community as well as serving as centralized repositories for legal opinions; for example, the Fiqh Council of North America <http://www.fiqhcouncil.org> (accessed 24 April 2011); and the European Council for Fatwa and Research <http://www.e-cfr.org/en/> (accessed 24 April 2011).

⁹⁸Ask the Scholar, ‘Shaikh Ahmad Kutty: Scholar Profile’ <http://www.askthescholar.com/1-7-scholar-profile.aspx> (accessed 24 April 2011).

⁹⁹Ahmad Kutty, ‘Alternatives for French Muslim Girls after Hijab Ban’ onislam (14 April 2011) <http://www.onislam.net/english/ask-the-scholar/morals-and-manners/dress-and-adornment/169916-alternatives-for-french-muslim-girls-after-hijab-ban.html?Adornment=>.

¹⁰⁰Ibid.

¹⁰¹Ibid.

¹⁰³Ibid.

¹⁰⁴Sheikh Ahmad Kutty Fatwa, <http://www.askthescholar.com/question-details.aspx?qstID=698> (last accessed 24 April 2011).

¹⁰⁵Ibid.

¹⁰⁶Griffith and Ali (n 1) 2:286 (“On no soul doth Allah place a burden greater than it can bear. … Lay not on us a burden greater than we have the strength to bear. Blot out our sins, and grant us forgiveness. Have mercy on us. Thou art our Protector; help us against those who stand against Faith.”).

¹⁰⁷Ibid.

¹¹⁰The Associated Press, ‘Saudi: OK to Uncover Face in Anti-Burqa Countries’ USA Today (24 July 2010) <http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2010-07-25-veil24_ST_N.htm>.

¹⁰⁸Abdullah Al-Shihri <http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2010-07-25-veil24_ST_N.htm> accessed 24 July 2010.

¹⁰⁹Ani, ‘Saudi Clerics Declare French Muslim Women Exempt from Wearing Veils’ Gaea Times (26 July 2010) <http://breakingnews.gaeatimes.com/2010/07/26/saudi-clerics-declare-french-muslim-women-exempt-from-wearing-veils-41887>.

¹¹¹Ani (n 109).

¹¹²Levy (n 88).

¹¹³Ibid.

¹¹⁴Ibid.

¹¹⁵Ibid. pp. 2–3.

¹¹⁶Hossein Noori-Hamedani, ‘Fatwa’ <http://www.islamopediaonline.org/fatwa/temporarilyabandoning-hijab-out-necessity-non-muslim-country> (accessed 24 April 2011) (emphasis added).