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This article discusses an audience study on young adult Canadian Muslim participatory fans of Muslim superheroes. It first examines Islamophobia in Canada such as the Quebec Mosque shooting and niqab bans in Canada before providing a background on three Muslim superheroines discussed in the audience study: Sooraya Qadir (Dust), Monet St. Croix (M), and Kamala Khan (Ms. Marvel), who is arguably the most important Muslim superhero of our time because of her character development and her series success. The article then proceeds to discuss some of the answers of respondents in the audience study before analyzing their responses through affect theory. Ultimately, this article acknowledges that while Muslim superheroes may provide a shelter to Muslim consumers of popular culture who are affected by the negative portrayals of Muslims during the War on Terror, it concludes that Muslim superhero representation ALSO assuaged white guilt during the War on Terror. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Burqa and niqab are currently the two most challenging manifestations of face veil in the West. Developed based on an interpretive method, the present research is an attempt to study and analyze semantic implications of face veil among 24 Muslim Iranian women in Baluchestan Province and Qeshm Island in Iran. Semi-structured interviews and field observations were employed. The findings indicated that the connotation of niqab for the ethnic-religious minority women in Baluchestan was different from that of burqa for the religious minority women living on Qeshm Island. The Baluch women wear niqab as a sign of their collective identity and differentiation as well as maximal religious commitment vis-à-vis Shia-Persian majority; whereas burqa more than representing religious or ethnic identity, is an expressive language for native women to differentiate their personal identity. Burqa, produced in different colors and forms, is rich enough to show the marital status, social class, economic wellbeing and the age of women wearing it in a traditional patriarchal society; whereas all-black niqab prevents the identification and differentiation of the users. Burqa and niqab trade in both regions under study has led to the women-only employment in its manufacturing market, sewing and sales, although applying gold threads on some brands of burqa has turned them into capital goods, playing a more decisive role in socio-economic empowerment of women in Qeshm. Given the findings of this study, it may be concluded that various types of face veils in the world of Islam represent certain signs and symbols within ethnic-religious structures that need further deliberation before enactment of any law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In August 2018, Denmark became the latest European country to ban the wearing of the niqab (face veil) in public. Indeed, several European countries such as France, Belgium and Austria have already implemented a ban on the wearing of the niqab in public places in these countries on the basis that the niqab is a symbol of gender oppression, Islamist fundamentalism and lack of integration. This issue has been the subject of heated media, political and public debates; however, the voices of veiled Muslim women remain unheard. Within the framework of Critical Race Feminism, the paper draws on qualitative interviews with Muslim women who wear the niqab in the United Kingdom (UK), in order to explore their views on legislation banning the wearing of the niqab in public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I explore some of the elements by which Muslim women who wear the hijab in the United States are managed so as to produce and distinguish "unruly" from "good" Muslim female citizens within the context of American liberalism. Unlike the French state, which has regulated both the hijab and niqab through national legislation, the American liberal framework utilizes a laissez‐faire approach, which relies on a range of public and private institutions to determine acceptable public presentations of the liberal female subject. I refer to this form of management as "neoliberalism." Neoliberal management works in conjunction with popular political discourses and domestic events in ways that alternately contract and expand the boundaries that allow "suitable Muslim women" in the public sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses political controversies in the Great Britain regarding wearing of Niqab and it also highlights the notion of choice to wear the niqab as well as discursive and physical navigation of social spaces. It mentions impact of modern secularism over religious lives and institutions of citizens. It also discusses theoretical and discursive framing of the niqab that links it to female, religious experiences that cannot be reduced to resistance against hegemonic discourses.

In July 2010, following a year-long nationwide debate over Islamic veiling, the French government passed a law prohibiting facial coverings in all public spaces. Prior research attributes this and other restrictive laws to France's republican secular tradition. This article takes a different approach. Building on literature that sees electoral politics as a site for articulating, rather than merely reflecting, social identities, I argue that the 2010 ban arose in significant part out of political parties' struggles to demarcate the boundaries of legitimate politics in the face of an ultra-right electoral threat. Specifically, I show that in seeking to prevent the ultra-right National Front party from monopolizing the religious signs issue, France's major right and left parties agreed to portray republicanism as requiring the exclusion of face veiling from public space. Because it was forged in conflict, however, the consensus thus generated is highly fractured and unstable. It conceals ongoing conflict, both between and within political parties, over the precise meaning(s) of French republican nationhood. The findings thus underscore the relationship between boundary-drawing in the political sphere and the process of demarcating the cultural and political boundaries of nationhood in contexts of immigrant diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers global news brief on Church-State Affairs as of July 2018. Topics discussed include amendment to Bolivia's penal code provoked protests against its limitation of religious liberty, Danish government has proposed a ban on full-face coverings niqab and burqa in public places and European Court of Justice ruled that courts could consider cases of hiring discrimination by faith-based organizations despite historic exemptions for church.

Debates about Islamic veiling practices often focus on legal aspects of wearing the hijab and niqab and the recent banning, actual and proposed, of the veil in several countries has received substantial media coverage. This ethnographic research paper adds to the discussion by providing insight into the views of women from the Sultanate of Oman, using questionnaire and interview data to examine their understanding of and beliefs about laws relating to veiling practices in Oman and in other countries. The research also explores Omani women’s views on the niqab, which has dominated much of the global media debate. The results indicate that Omani women typically believe that veiling practices should not be mandated by a legal framework but reflect personal choice rooted in Islamic notions of piety and respect and that non-Muslim countries should respect women’s freedom to dress according to their religious beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The niqab, the main subject of this article, is the garment worn by some Muslim women that conceals the face of its wearer, leaving only eyes visible. The Niqabi, as the wearer of the niqab is called, gives rise to high anxiety in the West. She generates an intense repugnance, a repugnance, I shall argue, that is paradoxically about desire. We need to ask why the niqab unsettles and who is unsettled by it and to ask these questions in a historically specific and contextualized way, keeping a sharp look out for the violence unleashed by bans. I suggest that in the West the niqab generates a deep anxiety surrounding knowing and possessing the woman who is covered. Bans on the niqab express a command to Muslim women to yield to racial and sexual superiority, and what is unbearable is her refusal to yield to the Western gaze. To make my case around possession, and to show its racialized, gendered, and sexualized dynamics, I offer an argument in two parts. First, I turn to legal cases banning the niqab, focusing primarily on the fantasamatic scenes of their legal geographies. Together these cases show that the primary legal logic on which bans rest--the idea, for instance, that an uncovered face is necessary for social interaction, is flimsy at best. The illogic that characterizes bans pushes me in the direction of psychoanalysis. Second, in an effort to understand what is at stake in these legal moments when law abandons logic, I reflect on the nature of the subject whose coherence cannot withstand the sight of a covered woman. The sexual nature of the responses to the Muslim woman wearing the niqab, the command to her to yield to the white masculine gaze, demands that we consider desire. Bans seek to reroute desire, damming up its flow and removing from sight the object of desire. I draw on Meyda Yegenoglu's exploration of colonial fantasy to explore the psychoanalytic basis to bans, emphasizing how the veil and niqab are experienced by many as obstacles to the visual control of Muslim women. I then turn to Susan Schweik, who considers the historical example of the banning of unsightly beggars. Schweik explores the scopic regime underpinning bans--that is, the removal from sight of anyone who threatens a subject's coherence. I suggest that we consider unveiling along these psychoanalytic and spatial lines, tracing the ways in which the subject is made racially and sexually superior through removing from sight the woman who refuses to yield to his or her gaze. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Courts from around the common law world have been required to decide whether a witness may give evidence while wearing a burqa or niqab. In the majority of documented cases the court has determined that the witness must remove her face covering. In coming to this conclusion the court has in many instances also considered alternative arrangements which may be put in place to minimise the witness’s discomfort and respect her religious beliefs as far as possible. This article analyses the existing case law to determine which practical solutions considered by the courts are the most effective both in terms of respecting the witness’s religious beliefs and in facilitating the administration of justice. It concludes that the removal of non-essential men and/or the screening of the witness along with ancillary orders, offers the best compromise for all concerned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article identifies a gap in extant literature on women who wear the niqab and their representations in 'traditional' media: there are few academic sources that draw from these women's own narratives. In order to address this gap, this article highlights niqabis' self-representations in the form of photographic self-portraits published in new media and demonstrates a variety of positive ways in which these self-portraits are received by the audiences. The article is based on a case study of a profile of a prolific author who posts and discusses her work on a popular photo-sharing website. It throws light on contextualised and relational interpretations of the niqab and its meaning and at the same time challenges a common perception that non-Muslim audiences are uniformly critical of women who wear the niqab. Data analysis of the data so far indicates that women who wear the niqab exercise their agency by making visual references to the everyday and successfully establish dialogue and intimacy with their audiences. It is suggested that new media settings are particularly important in researching 'niqab experiences', as they foster a variety of relevant data types and narratives driven by participants, rather than researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Canada, hijab wearing Muslim women have increasingly faced discrimination in the post 9–11 era. In this study, we investigate Muslim women's experiences with the hijab and how they are viewed as the “other” in a multicultural country like Canada. Interviews were conducted with twenty-six Muslim women who describe their experiences with the hijab. The study focuses on how the hijab is perceived in public and how experiences with discrimination have motivated Muslim women to reclaim their voices in a space that perceives Muslim women to be oppressed. Thematic network analysis of the data revealed three central themes: religiosity, societal prejudice and internal struggle. Discrimination was experienced by all participants and internal struggles resulted in resolution techniques that helped in mitigating negative experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of heightened suspicion and anti-Muslim stereotypes in a post-9/11 and 7/7 era, Muslim women who wear the niqab (face veil) are stigmatized, criminalized and marked as ‘dangerous’ to British/Western values. While the wearing of the niqab has elicited a good deal of media, political and public debates, little attention has been paid to the opinions of Muslim women who wear it. Drawing on individual and focus group interviews with Muslim women who wear the niqab in the UK, this article places at the centre of the debate the voices of those women who do wear it, and explores their reasons for adopting it. The findings show that the wearing of the niqab emerges as a personal choice, an expression of religious piety, public modesty and belonging to the ‘ummah’. It is also perceived as a form of agency, and non-conformity to Western consumerist culture and lifestyle. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Judges in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada have ruled that witnesses may not wear the niqab--a type of face veil--when testifying, in part because they believed that it was necessary to see a person's face to detect deception (Muhammad v. Enterprise Rent-A-Car, 2006; R. v. N. S., 2010; The Queen v. D(R), 2013). In two studies, we used conventional research methods and safeguards to empirically examine the assumption that niqabs interfere with lie detection. Female witnesses were randomly assigned to lie or tell the truth while remaining unveiled or while wearing a hijab (i.e., a head veil) or a niqab (i.e., a face veil). In Study 1, laypersons in Canada (N = 232) were more accurate at detecting deception in witnesses who wore niqabs or hijabs than in those who did not wear veils. Concealing portions of witnesses' faces led laypersons to change their decision-making strategies without eliciting negative biases. Lie detection results were partially replicated in Study 2, with laypersons in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands (N = 291): observers' performance was better when witnesses wore either niqabs or hijabs than when witnesses did not wear veils. These findings suggest that, contrary to judicial opinion, niqabs do not interfere with--and may, in fact, improve--the ability to detect deception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the French court case SAS v France which deals with the challenge to the French law that does not allow wearing of clothing which conceals one's face in public places, by a Muslim woman who wears a niqab.

This article considers the current state of the law in respect of Muslim women who wish to wear the Niqaab while appearing in court. It reviews the approach of the courts in England and Wales to this issue culminating in the decision of R v D in September 2013 and compares this to the approach of other common law jurisdictions. The article considers whether the popular approach of placing the need to see the 'demeanour' of a witness above the right of that witness to manifest her religion is properly founded. The decision in R v D is discussed against the framework of article 9 of the European Convention of Human Rights and concludes that the requirement that it was neither necessary nor proportionate to place a precondition on the defendant in R v D that she removed her veil if she wished to testify in her own defence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the rule of law in Canada in relation to a ruling in the 2015 legal case Ishaq v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration) which deals with Canadian officials' refusal to allow Pakistani national Zunera Ishaq to wear her niqab face veil while taking the Oath of Citizenship.

The article discusses the case of Zunera Ishaq who affirmed her right to wear a niqab or a face-covering veil while taking the Canadian citizenship oath in 2015. Topics include Canada's commitment to openness and to social cohesion, the lack of transparency and the anti-women nature of the practice of wearing niqab, and the impact of the niqab issue on the loss of the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to Liberal Party's Justin Trudeau in the October 2015 elections.

This paper argues that Muslim women in Helsinki, Finland use dress as a tool to cultivate and express forms of cultural capital, that fashion, anti-fashion and non-fashion are strategies in such practices, and that fashionability, stylishness, piety, modesty, disinterest in fashion, and spirituality are forms of symbolic capital that are used in order to gain status within various reference groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several countries have imposed bans on the wearing of face veils, a controversial option considered in Bill 94 by the province of Quebec in 2010. This paper examines non-Muslim women's support for the acceptability of the niqab in public spaces. Analysing the 2010 Quebec Women's Political Participation Survey, we find that key feminist arguments – that wearing the niqab is a woman's free choice, a matter of freedom of religion and a visible symbol of women's oppression – are important drivers of opinion. Their role in shaping opinion, however, is complex and mirrors divisions among feminist groups in the province. Additional attitudinal drivers include generation, exposure to the practice and openness to immigration. Equally important, our findings suggest that being a member of a racial minority, feelings of cultural insecurity and religiosity are of little consequence for thinking on the issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines three judicial decisions in three different jurisdictions involving niqab-wearing women in courtrooms. Particular emphasis is paid to the Canadian Supreme Court case of R v. NS in which a sexual assault complainant wanted to wear her niqab while testifying. The uniquely challenging context of sexual assault, which has garnered much feminist attention and reform internationally, is considered. It is argued that serious consideration must be given to the multiple rights of Muslim women by reassessing the traditional use of demeanor evidence. Some judges in these cases attempt to be inclusive of niqab-wearing women in accordance with policies of multiculturalism, yet they do not go far enough in protecting Muslim women’s rights. Other judges refuse to accommodate the niqab entirely. This troubling analysis parallels attempts made to exclude niqab-wearing women from public spaces in Canada and permits dubious objections that certain requests for accommodation have gone too far. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on online narratives of female converts to Islam who wear or plan to wear the niqab. There is little discussion in research literature about motivations leading to adoption of the niqab or experiences of women who wear it. Instead, the discourse on niqab has been sensationalised by tabloid media which construct it as a symbol of otherness and separation from the host culture and, recently, one of radicalisation. This begs the question: why are some converts drawn to it despite negative reactions to the niqab by some Muslims and non-Muslims. Here, I examine online discussions in which converted women argue why they wish to wear the niqab, often in contradiction to other Muslims' views. I draw from Rambo's conversion model (1993) and Lave and Wenger's concept of communities of practice to illuminate the process whereby participants learn about Islam and the niqab through social interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 12 December 2011, the Canadian government banned the niqab in citizenship ceremonies. Now women who wear full-face veils are required to remove them while they swear their citizenship oath to Canada. This paper examines the veiling debate in the media during the weeks following the Canadian ban of the niqab during citizenship ceremonies. Using Critical Discourse Analysis, I assess the dominant perspectives contained in 80 Canadian newspaper articles and governmental news releases focused upon the December announcement of the ban. I argue that banning the niqab during citizenship ceremonies is detrimental to Muslim women because those who wear the full-face veil may now be reluctant to obtain citizenship. Moreover, based upon the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, this event illustrates how Canada only incorporates cultural practices perceived as congruent with mainstream expectations of minority and immigrant integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents news briefs on religion and state relations. A referendum in Ireland on the repeal of the country's blasphemy laws has been introduced. A Persian Gulf area Muslim woman in France was asked to leave the opera "La Traviata" at the Bastille Opera in Paris, France because of wearing a niqab. Separatists in Ukraine released a pastor of the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Gorlovka, Donetsk province, Ukraine.

Veil Bans in Western Europe: Interpreting Policy Diffusion examines the diffusion of Muslim veil-ban laws in four Western European countries within the last decade; France, Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands. Nationwide bans on full-face Muslim veiling are rooted in several systemic, normative, and political accounts and advocated by contrasting political ideologies. Methodologically, this paper employs an integrative perspective to explain the process of diffusion in some countries but not in others, by exploring both external and internal factors that led to policy innovation. Overall, full-face Muslim veil bans in Western Europe have been intended to accelerate cultural integration of minorities to European values and traditions, but have been challenged by Muslim minorities in the region and their rights of expression and religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Law & Society/Revue Canadienne Droit et Societe (Cambridge University Press) is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article focuses on the issue of witness demeanour that creates a problem with Anglo-American legal procedure and evidence law based on religious freedom and the interests of justice. Topics discussed include a case in which Judge Peter Murphy upheld a request by a Muslim female accused at Blackfriars crown court in London, England to be permitted to wear a niqab, the growing impact of managerialism in legal proceedings, national debate to ban the wearing of the veisl in public.

This paper is about the power of representation; it takes as specific focus an animal who has been made out to represent all that is impure in Islamic discourses. Not only are dogs regarded as unclean animals, but their entry into a person's home has been described to be a cause for refusal of angels to enter that home. In other words, good Muslims have to stay away from them. This is odd when the actual history and life of dogs among Arabs is studied, for without dogs Arab merchants trekking over long desert route and peaceful sleeping peasantry all over the Islamic world could not have been protected from attackers, thieves and evil-doers except for vigilant dogs attached to the people involved. Moreover, it is a clear contradiction that the representation of dogs as unclean animals is mostly based on fiqh when in fact the Holy Qur'an has honored the dog in Surat al-Kahf. This paper will discuss these contradictions and discuss the actual place of the dog in Islamic and Arab history and contemporary life to illustrate the contradictions between representation and reality. While this article is not about gender, it is closely related to moral discourses involving women and canines. It is perhaps not coincidental that the last thirty years have seen the anti-dog discourse reach such momentum at the same time as the call for the niqab and the seclusion of women; it is the same voices and groups that seem to espouse both, being conservatively dressed, religiously inclined and observant, and dog-hating seem to go together. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Studia Ethnologica Croatica is the property of Studia Ethnologica Croatica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This essay examines controversies in the European Union around legislation that bans women from dressing in a 'visibly Muslim' way in public. It brings together two usually separate domains of inquiry to reconsider geopolitical, emotional, and intellectual crosscurrents of these ostensibly national controversies in parts of the EU. I argue that these two domains need addressing in tandem to generate new insights and move scholarly debates that have become polarized in turn. The first strand is critiques of the influence that popular culture, in particular reality television makeover shows, has on body image and global consumption practices. The second is postcolonial critiques of orientalist discourses around the agency of Muslim women and veil dressing practices. The aim is to unpack the underlying contradictions and blind-spots that characterize many of the arguments for and against these laws, used by critics of not only Burqa-Ban legislation but also Muslim women's veil dressing in a context in which western public imaginaries about what the veil really means are becoming increasingly polarized and punitive. This juxtaposition can provide a new theoretical and empirical point of departure for reflecting on the geopolitical and ethical implications of laws that aim to police women's bodies and ways of dressing in western liberal democracies; an hardening of attitude and political discourse that lies at the intersection of global shifts in post 9/11 popular imaginaries, national identity projects, and geopolitics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the laws that regulate Islamic veiling continue to generate global controversy, the 2004 documentary filmThey Call Me Muslimcan provide a fruitful starting point for discussions of the veil and of Muslim women in the media. In the film, director Diana Ferrero interviews two women, each ostracized by her own society for her decision regarding the veil. Samah, a university student, decides to wear a veil in increasingly Islamophobic Paris, whereas K, a young mother living in Tehran, resists wearing a veil despite being compelled to do so by Iranian law. By juxtaposing Samah's and K's stories, Ferrero creates a forum for meaningful conversation among diverse, outspoken Muslim women. Yet, throughout the film she also constructs her own overarching narrative of feminist, Muslim women who believe in choice. By viewingThey Call Me Muslimthrough the lenses of medical anthropologist Arthur Frank's illness narrative “standpoint” and the framework of the medical gaze, this paper seeks to illuminate important tensions in this film. While Ferrero creates a space for these marginalized women to make their voices heard, she also in a sense places them as objects to be “unveiled,” analyzed, and pathologized by English-speaking viewers. Ferrero's message of “freedom of choice,” which ultimately supersedes each individual woman's story, echoes the value of patient autonomy and individual choice at the center of Western medicine today. Thus, this paper seeks to analyze the ways in which the standpoint, the medical gaze, and individual choice function in relation to each other in this film as well as how these concepts illuminate and expand discussions about veiling. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this article, I discuss the main arguments that deal with mainstream media representations of niqabis in the West. In distinguishing between such representations of niqabis and their self-representations distributed online on photo-sharing sites, it is my purpose to highlight the entirely different visual rhetoric that emerges from the latter by pointing to various aspects of the self-portraits. After giving an overview of the literature that discusses the niqab, and indicating that niqabis' voices have been entirely neglected, I analyze several self-portraits of two niqabis located online in reference to a theoretical framework offered by Kati Caetano who has traced established ways of representing Muslim women in journalistic photography. Finally, I argue that niqabis disrupt the normalized associations of the niqab with passivity, otherness, and violence by establishing intimacy with the audience. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper uses queer theory, specifically literature onBowers v. Hardwick, to analyze debates over legislation proposed in Quebec regarding covered faces. Queer theory sheds light on legal responses to the veil. Parliamentary debates in Quebec reconstitute the polity, notably as secular and united. The paper highlights the contradictory and unstable character of four binaries: legislative text versus social practice, act versus status, majority versus minority, and knowable versus unknowable. As with contradictory propositions about homosexuality, contradiction does not undermine discourse but makes it stronger and more agile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Judges and public policy makers have transmitted conflicting messages in relation to women's bodies and have made normative judgements about how women are to appear in public. Women who have been judged to be wearing too much are called to undress as they are seen as interfering with the rights of others or being oppressed. Women judged to be wearing too little are urged to clothe themselves to avoid being seen as inviting sexual assault or dressing like always sexually available prostitutes. Juxtaposing these two situations, the oddness of judicial and public regulation of women's clothing becomes more starkly exposed. This paper examines the shifting nature of equality discourse and the naming of women's oppression; the near-disappearance of patriarchy as an explanatory framework; and the quagmire of women's agency. The concluding section proposes shifting the focus from differences between women's experiences to similarity in order to facilitate critical inquiry, dialogue and strategic action that might reconstitute women's equality in new ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper locates the discussion on wearing niqab and burqa within the context of information acquisition and response formation among Muslims and non-Muslims in the contemporary world. The paper argues that, against the backdrop of varied opinions on Islam and Muslims around the world, the debate on wearing burqa represents the continuation – albeit up-scaling – of the focus on Muslim women as the signifiers of Islam and Muslim identities. Australia is influenced by, and dealing with, the debate on whether or not to ban the burqa and niqab. Opinions among both the wider community and Muslims have differed on the justification and advisability of such a ban. The Australian government at the federal and state levels has demonstrated cautious activism in dealing with the issue, thus protecting the rights of Australian Muslim minorities, and reducing the space in which a heightened sense of exclusion could develop among them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question of multiculturalism in Northern Ireland (NI) and the Republic of Ireland (ROI) has come more to the fore in recent years with growing levels of plurality within these societies. Indeed, new debates are opening up regarding identity and citizenship, which undoubtedly are challenging traditional conceptions of identity, with consequences for integration. Yet despite public acknowledgement of minority communities, an established equality and human rights industry, and a plethora of equality and anti-discrimination legislation, the article argues that NI and the ROI cannot as yet be described as multicultural. Using the veil as a lens through which to explore narratives about identity in NI and the ROI, the article discusses the link between identity and integration, demonstrating the integration philosophies at work, and furthermore considers the wider gender implications of integration. It analyses the veil as a symbol of otherness in Ireland, as a symbol of the threat of diversity, and as a symbol of fundamentalism in ‘secular’ Ireland. It utilises fieldwork carried out with Muslim women in Ireland. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article focuses on the aspects related to fairness of trial with respect to the decision of the Supreme Court of Canada on the case R v. N.S. Topics discussed include claims of religious freedom in the courtroom trials, the requirement of accommodating Muslim veil in a justice system while trials, and the justification on removing niqab for testification while sexual assault trials. It further discusses the need of cross-examination of evidences while trials.

Starting from an indication of the problematic nature of the relationship between religion and the state, this paper examines political debates on the headscarf and face veil in three liberal states – Germany, France, and Belgium – between 2003 and 2011. It shows the significant commonalities – despite both the different arrangements between religion and the state and also despite the radically different political, social, and linguistic situations in these countries. The political debates are hostile and assert that fundamental values closely related to national identity, societal values, and human rights are threatened by what the headscarf or face veil represents. The similarity of argumentation shows that, whether the country has a doctrine oflaïcitéor is more overt about the links between religion and the state, the liberalism of each has reached the limits of the ‘alien religiosity’ which politicians say their country can bear. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between neo-colonialist discourse and Quebec's proposed Bill 94 aimed at restricting the public activities of niqab and veil-wearing Muslim women. Design/methodology/approach – Drawing upon postcolonial feminist frames, this study critically analyzes the discourses of Muslim women and Western elites that serve to construct the niqab and veil-wearing Muslim women. Using critical discourse analysis of digital and print media articles from 1994 to 2010, the authors trace the discursive character of the Muslim woman related to Bill 94 which proposes the banning of religious face coverings when seeking public services in the Province of Quebec, Canada. Findings – This paper develops a postcolonial understanding of the discursive conditions that constitute the social environment in which Muslim women are required to operate in Quebec and the advent of Bill 94. The authors contend that the discourses in the construction of Muslim women have mutated over time towards Western cultural hegemony and paternalism, and, in the process, Muslim women have been constructed as oppressed, in need of saving, and at the same time not to be trusted. Research limitations/implications – The account of events in this paper offer an alternative lens in privileging some of the embedded beliefs and values behind dominant cultural accounts of Quebec in relation to Muslim women and Bill 94. Future scholars may wish to extend this study through examining discourses of secular, veil and niqab-wearing Muslim women; newcomers, those living in Canada for a longer period and those born in Canada; as well as those from different countries of origin. Another area of research that is ripe for exploration is workplace experiences of Muslim women in Canada. Additionally, examination of overt and subtle discrimination faced by Muslim women would provide important insights into employment equity and human rights. Originality/value – This paper presents a close look at public discourses around the niqab and Muslim women in Canada, demonstrating the persistence of colonial dynamics and mindsets influencing how issues regarding minority groups are evaluated today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hijab and other forms of Islamic head cover have become indelibly associated with notions of inequality and repression in the minds of many non-Muslims. This article queries the meanings and functions of hijab within both Muslim and non-Muslim contexts. It begins by exploring hijab as a transcendental signifier and the epistemological challenges it poses to the gaze. The discussion shifts to focus on the social semiotics of hijab in Arab/Muslim contexts and the myriad fashions and signifieds associated with hijab before situating the hjiab within the western context of the society of enjoyment. The article concludes that the repressive hypothesis associated with hijab is too reductionist to explain the complex and multiple meanings attached to it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the successful campaign to have the burqa and niqab banned from public use in France, and the continuing advocacy to have these garments banned in other Western liberal societies, I examine whether the two strongest challenges to the burqa and niqab succeed in justifying a ban on these forms of veil. Although I argue that they both fail in supporting a ban, the fact that some Muslim women may be coerced into full veiling gives liberal states a moral duty to interfere. In the light of this, I propose a comprehensive approach, which is better suited to ensure that the necessary conditions are in place for Muslim women to be the authors of their own lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]