Burqa Affair Across Europe

Alessandro Ferrari teaches Law and Religion and Comparative Religious Laws at the University of Insubria (Como-Varese) and is also a member of the Groupe Sociétés, Religions, Laïcités (GSRL-CNRS/École Pratique des Hautes Études-Sorbonne) and of Centre Prisme Politique, Religion, Institutions et Sociétés : Mutations Européennes of Strasbourg. He is the coordinator of the Inter-University project 'New Religious Presences' (www.fidr.it ) and member of the Conferenza Permanente Religioni, Cultura e Integrazione at the Italian Ministry for International Cooperation and Integration. His main research interests focus on the present changes of the right of religious freedom in the globalized context. His latest book is Diritto e Religione nell’Islam Mediterraneo (Law and Religion in Mediterranean Islam) (Il Mulino, Bologna, 2012). Sabrina Pastorelli is Research Fellow at the Institute of International Law - section of Ecclesiastical and Canon Law - University of Milan, Faculty of Law. She is also a member of the Groupe Sociétés, Religions, Laïcités (GSRL-CNRS/École Pratique des Hautes Études-Sorbonne) and the Centre Politique, Religion, Institutions et Sociétés : Mutations Européennes (PRISME-CNRS/University of Strasbourg). She teaches sociology of religion and political sociology at the University of Caen. Her research interests include sociology of religion; new religious movements; law and religion in the Europe; religious education; regulation of religious pluralism; state public policy and religion. She is a member of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion (ISSR), the Association internationale des sociologues de langue française (AISLF), the Italian Sociological Association (AIS), the Association for the Sociology of Religion (ASR).

’This book poses a substantial challenge to those who would limit religious freedom in Europe by banning Muslim women's full-face covering, commonly called burqa. The authors place the legal issues in a broader political, social and cultural context. In so doing, they expose the questionable grounds for banning the burqa in France and Belgium and of proposals elsewhere.’ Jørgen S. Nielsen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark ’This volume is a milestone of legal and sociological research regarding one of the most heated European debates on religion in public space. It follows a most welcome and urgently needed pragmatic approach in accordance with European guarantees of human rights - a benchmark for future reflections.’ Mathias Rohe, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany ’...this book is a useful reference to the regulation of the burqa in Europe, including contributions by scholars who are knowledgeable about the situation in the countries about which they write.’ Journal of Contemporary Religion '... this book will appeal to scholars with an interest in Islam and human rights. Its thorough legal discussion of this controversy in Europe enables the reader to gain a wider perspective than would be afforded by a monograph about a specific national context. On the other hand, it could also be effectively used as a reference text by sociologists hoping to situate their own case-study analyses within a legal framework.' American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences

• Introduction, Alessandro Ferrari, Sabrina Pastorelli; Chapter 1 In Praise of Pragmatism, Silvio Ferrari; Chapter 2 Burqa and Islam, Roberta Aluffi Beck-Peccoz; Chapter 3 Burqa, Niqab and Women’s Rights, Letizia Mancini; Chapter 4 A Besieged Right: Religious Freedom and the Italian War on the Burqa and the Niqab, Alessandro Ferrari; Chapter 5 The Burqa Affair in France, Anne Fornerod; Chapter 6 Legal and Social Issues Concerning the Wearing of the Burqa and Other Head Coverings in the United Kingdom, Mark Hill; Chapter 7 Introducing a General Burqa Ban in the Netherlands, Adriaan Overbeeke; Chapter 8 The Burqa Affair in Spain: Legal Perspectives, Agustín Motilla; Chapter 9 The Belgian ‘Burqa Ban’: Legal Aspects of Local and General Prohibitions on Covering and Concealing One’s Face in Belgium, Jogchum Vrielink, Saïla Ouald Chaib, Eva Brems; Chapter 10 A Quest for Open Helmets: On the Danish Burqa Affair, Lisbet Christoffersen; Chapter 11 Burqa in Germany – Not Really an Issue: A Short Note 1 We wish to thank Matthias Fleischer for his assistance in writing this chapter., Jörn Thielmann, Kathrin Vorholzer; Chapter 12. Subsequent to the Como meeting there have been further workshops on the face-veil, including Empirical Face Veil Research, Human Rights Centre, Ghent University, 9 May 2012 (Organiser: Eva Brems); and ‘Illegal’ Covering: Comparative Perspectives on Legal and Social Discourses on Religious Diversity, International Institute for the Sociology of Law (IISL), Oñati, Spain, 17–18 May 2012 (Organisers: Valérie Amiraux and Pascale Fournier)., Ralph Grillo, Prakash Shah; Chapter 13 The Burqa in Europe: European Institutions and the Comparative/Interdisciplinary Approach, Daniele Ferrari, Sabrina Pastorelli; concl Conclusion: The European Burqa Debates: Past, Present and Future 1 These comments are based on a paper presented at the ENAR conference on European Racisms in Brusssels on 27–28 September 2012., Maleiha Malik; oth1 The Religare-Como Declaration on the Issue of the Burqa;