Politics of the Veil

"How does the author come to the conclusion that “rather than resolving the problem of integrating Muslims into French society, the law banning headscarves has exacerbated it” (179)

In Politics of the Veil, Joan Wallach Scott mentions that “rather 

than resolving the problem of integrating Muslims into French society, the law banning headscarves has exacerbated it.” It’s through personal testimonies of women wearing headscarves that have been restricted from services and ceremonies that Joan Wallach Scott came up with this conclusion. A few examples that Joan Wallach Scott mentions to support her conclusion are that mayors have withheld public services to women wearing veils because they have thought that wearing an headscarf is illegal, women can’t serve or perform marriage ceremonies because of the veil, or “a teller refused to wait on her because her veil might be the disguise for a hold-up.” Joan continues on telling stories and incidents that women have experienced. All these women met the requirements, but it was their headscarf that hindered them from getting services, performing ceremonies, or obtaining the rights of other women.

Women protesting in France in 2004

Overall, I do think that this conclusion is relative true. Integrating something into a society is learning how to live with it in everyday life. France hasn’t integrated the Muslims into French society; they have created a society that only makes Muslims stand out more but I believe this can be said about many countries besides France. 

Integrating Muslims into French society will remain to be a complicated problem because the problem is a  misconception of the meaning behind the headscarf, which creating laws against the headscarf or the religion only supports the falsehood. It seems that there is falsehood represented in French culture and that is if a woman wears a headscarf that makes them less of a woman and citizen. Laws banning headscarves creates people in society to concentrate on the headscarf and not the individual person because when something is illegal, majority will automatically think of it as bad. Overcoming this misconception is hard and takes many years but the first step is overcoming the falsehood of the headscarf. Women wearing headscarves are ordinary women that have every right as a woman not choosing to wear the headscarf.