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Liberal paradoxes: women’s body, religious expression, and gender equality in a secular age

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posted on 2023-06-09, 08:55 authored by Giorgia BaldiGiorgia Baldi
The debate over the hijab has become an arena of fervent discussion in Europe. The recent political developments have opened a discussion on the relationship between a “secularized” West and an Islamic world. At the heart of this debate is the juridical regulation of women’s body and whether a simple piece of cloth such as the veil should be allowed or prohibited. This article takes into consideration two leading cases decided at the European Court of Human Rights over the practice of veiling which rely on the assumption that the headscarf is incompatible with western democratic values because irreconcilable with the principle of gender equality. I argue that the hijab cannot be seen as an expression of women’s oppression, as the concept of freedom and agency changes in different historical and cultural contexts: thus, what these decisions reveal is that the universalism of the Western/liberal concept of freedom and agency has been the main domain through which to read women’s oppression and their possibility of agency.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

AG AboutGender

ISSN

2279-5057

Publisher

University of Genoa

Issue

10

Volume

5

Page range

166-185

Department affiliated with

  • Law Publications

Research groups affiliated with

  • Sussex Centre for Human Rights Research Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2017-11-20

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2017-11-20

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2017-11-20

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