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
The Use of Artificial Intelligence for Public Security Among Prejudices, Secularism, and Respect for Fundamental Guarantees
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
The growing concern raised by terrorism and a general trend toward Islam have resulted in many governments introducing various forms of restriction concerning religious garments. Such policies pose a threat to the principle of secularism, as it is clear, especially in the COVID-19 era where everybody has to wear a mask, that these restrictions cannot be solely justified by’ public security’ reasons. This chapter tries to explain how, in this arguably discriminating environment, technological progress can make a difference to overcome unreasonable restraints to an individual's rights. Yet, this’ way out’ comes with its own risk of causing rights violations.
Introduction
The Islamic veil, which has always been one of the most controversial women's garments, has made modern Europe the scene of cultural battles, feminist movements, and prohibition laws that constantly collide in public spaces.
Behind the tormented question about the Islamic veil (the b urqa and niqāb in particular) lies the more general problem of how Western democracies react to rooting and visibility of Islam in Europe and, in particular, to the symbol that these garments – perceived as totally foreign to the Western cultural tradition – transmit to the system of fundamental rights and individual freedom. Garments such as the niqāb and the burqa are always at the forefront of debate, and end up being a mere:
extreme declination of a symbol seen as a threat in the fight against terrorism as it is automatically associated with, a culture perceived as having intrinsic danger that threatens security, the secular values of European states and the women's rights.
Over the years, the issue has been part of a dispute primarily focused on the different meanings of secularism, freedom, and inter-ethnic relations. The great fight against the Islamic veil is represented by the protection of the’ social discipline of the female body’ and ‘public security’ in a Europe increasingly shaken by terrorist attacks of a religious nature and increasingly attentive to the protection of women's rights, as it is based on equality between the sexes, and sees the veil as an illiberal practice in contrast with the values and principles of Western culture and, above all, as a symbol of reluctance to integrate with the majority culture.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Law, Cultural Studies and the 'Burqa Ban' TrendAn Interdisciplinary Handbook, pp. 263 - 280Publisher: IntersentiaPrint publication year: 2021