Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- Contents
- List of Cases
- List of Abbreviations
- List of Contributors
- An Introduction to the Interdisciplinary Considerations of the “Burqa Ban” Trend: Criminalizing the Trivial or Separating National and International Law?
- PART I Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Strategy of Prohibition
- PART II Legal Perspectives: Religious Clothing, Law, and a Veil-Wearer’s Experiential Account
- Part II Legal Perspectives: Human Rights Perspectives
- Part II Legal Perspectives: National Perspectives
- PART III Responses To Otherness: Gender, Race, And The Veil Factor
- Epilogue
- Index
- About the Editors
Denmark’s Blanket Burqa Ban: A National(ist) Perspective
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 December 2021
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- Contents
- List of Cases
- List of Abbreviations
- List of Contributors
- An Introduction to the Interdisciplinary Considerations of the “Burqa Ban” Trend: Criminalizing the Trivial or Separating National and International Law?
- PART I Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Strategy of Prohibition
- PART II Legal Perspectives: Religious Clothing, Law, and a Veil-Wearer’s Experiential Account
- Part II Legal Perspectives: Human Rights Perspectives
- Part II Legal Perspectives: National Perspectives
- PART III Responses To Otherness: Gender, Race, And The Veil Factor
- Epilogue
- Index
- About the Editors
Summary
Abstract
In 2018, the strategy of law-making was utilized in the Kingdom of Denmark to respond against garments “that cover the face” along the lines of a democratic society where values like openness and transparency guide interaction, dialogue, and communication. The new measure, law L 219, does not refer expressis verbis to the veil, or to women, or to Islam. Nevertheless, the national Parliament proceeded on premises that reveal why the provision that prohibits full-face veils is commonly known as the “burqa ban.” Only between 50 and 200 Muslim women wear a full-face veil, a fact that enters them into a minority within a minority in the statistics. However, to trivialize the ban would be an error. As the Danish legislators see things, the need for law L 219 is about “value politics” in contradistinction to “political Islam,” which causes unwanted phenomena like gender inequality, religious extremism, and terrorism. Besides an account of the burqa ban and the broader context for this, the chapter attempts to capture the various variables in the legal equation. Yet, with realpolitik as the constant in the equation, the absence of a distinction between a rationale and a rationalization is unavoidable, and the authors therefore call the Danish bluff.
Introduction: The Danish Criminalization Strategy
There will be no bad incidents involving Muslim women – no “French trouble” – so the Danish Minister of Justice S ø ren Pape Poulsen reassured the citizenry when § 134 c. of the amended Danish Penal Code, the provision for the so-called “burqa ban,” was added, adopted, and signed into law. By criminalizing Islamic garments, no broad stakeholder possibility of reconciling us and them arguably existed – for why else resort to the branch of law that makes obedience non-negotiable and non-discretionary because of the importance of what is at stake? Criminal law is a particularly strong no choice domain on account of its orientation toward absolute as opposed to relative obligations that come with controlling powers for the subjects who therefore operate as small-scale sovereigns, according to Herbert L.A. Hart.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Law, Cultural Studies and the 'Burqa Ban' TrendAn Interdisciplinary Handbook, pp. 349 - 390Publisher: IntersentiaPrint publication year: 2021