The Construction of Radical Islam in France: The Headscarf Affair

Introduction: The presence and growing visibility of Muslims in France has given rise to important debates in the public sphere . While there have been various approaches and multiple topics have been dealt with , the issue of the Muslim headscarf often dominated discussions for the better part of the last two decades and structured mainstream perceptions of the Islamic threat ' in France , leading to a legal ban on conspicuous religious signs in public schools in early 2004. In order to understand the development from November 1989 , when the headscarf was conditionally accepted in schools by the Conseil d'Etat , to the adoption of the law in February 2004 , we have to analyse the process through which a specific perception of the headscarf has become hegemonic in France . In this process , a variety of counterclaims about the meaning and function of this practice , notably the claims made by covered women themselves , have become utterly unintelligible to the overwhelm majority of French . If various spokespeople for the Republic felt that France was threatened by the presence of the headscarf in public spaces , particularly in public schools , it is because the hijab has come to be understood as a phenomenon which embodies key political , social and cultural practices of Muslims . Here we attempt to provide a critical analysis of how such linkages have been established , what evidence has been mobilised to support such linkages , and what has been left out . We begin by looking at Muslim understandings of the headscarf as a contested religious practice . We then proceed to evaluate how three specific arguments ( namely , the defence of laïcité , the struggle against the Islamisation of France , and the protection of gender equality ) have been mobilised in favour of the headscarf ban . In conclusion we point briefly to a series of historical factors that better explain France's particular anxiety about Islam and the headscarf.