Abstract
“Why the headscarf? What is it about the headscarf that makes it the focus of controversy, the sign of something intolerable?” (p. 3). These are the central questions Scott seeks to answer in this captivating book by focusing on the 2004 French law banning the wearing of “conspicuous signs” of religious affiliation in public schools. Scott’s analysis draws on her 40 years of experience studying French history to trace the historical roots of the contemporary veil controversies in French political discourse. She unravels “the complex fabric of French republican discourse” through analyzing its interwoven strands of the headscarf controversies, racism, secularism, individualism, and sexuality, dedicating a chapter to each topic, illustrating how each strand contributes to fortifying the boundaries of an imagined France that is built on “excluding dangerous others from the nation” (p. 18). Her key argument is that the veil in French republican discourse is used to cover up France’s history of racism, colonial legacies, postcolonial guilt, and failure to integrate its North African and Muslim populations. Scott acknowledges the global dimension of the imagined conflict between “Islam” and “the West” and touches on problems of Muslim integration and issues of national identity throughout Western Europe, emphasizing the importance of taking the local context into account. While Scott provides an in-depth analysis of the French local political context, her analysis falls short of discussing the influence of the current global politics of the “war on terror” on shaping this local context. One has to ask why this law was passed in 2004, not earlier, despite the extensive racist history and prior attempts of the French government to ban Islamic headscarves in public schools dating back to 1989, as Scott details in her discussion of the headscarf controversies.
Scott discusses how the veil has come to be “a potent political emblem” representing various meanings, ranging from colonial fantasies of submission and domination, seduction and terror, victimization and oppression; an instrument of resistance; and an expression of faith, choice, and agency. She highlights the absence of the voices of the girls who are the targets of the headscarf ban in the debates, yet she replicates their voicelessness by not making their views more prominent in the book. Nevertheless, Scott captures the diversity of women’s perspectives on the issue and offers an important critique of French feminists who endorsed the headscarf ban, arguing that both Islamic and French systems are patriarchal and objectify women’s bodies, but it is the power of what she terms “the psychology of denial” that led these feminists to abandon their critique of the status quo in France.
As Scott suggests, examining the social costs and implications of the French headscarf law have relevance beyond just a local story. She echoes the views of other critics of the headscarf law in advocating new ways of addressing difference, rethinking current notions of democracy, and critically analyzing how it is undermined by the idea of a “clash of civilizations.”