The case against the face-veil: A European perspective

• Mechoulan, Stéphane ^[1]
  1. [1] Dalhousie University

     Dalhousie University

     Canadá

     
• Localización: International journal of constitutional law, ISSN 1474-2640, Vol. 16, Nº. 4, 2018, págs. 1267-1292
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • In 2010, France banned the wearing of face-veils in public. Anglo-liberal scholars criticized the move vehemently. France succeeded in confusing the European Court of Human Rights into accepting the proposition that the visibility of the face is key to the so-called vivre ensemble. However, such arguments steer our attention toward the material implication of the practice of veiling while obscuring the genuine driver behind the prohibition, i.e. the metaphysical harm caused by publicly displaying an ideology supporting a competing vision of the good. This is corroborated by those attempts to ban the burkini in the summer of 2016 in some French municipalities. The surge of face-veil bans and condemnations of the practice of face-veiling across Europe underscore the existence of a common sensitive nerve: the face-veil appears to defy the minimal amount of cohesiveness necessary for the preservation of collective identity within European culture. In turn, this article provides a legal articulation for the ban that does not need the tenets of French republicanism as support. Drawing from anthropology, sociology, and political philosophy, I elucidate how, in this haphazard concept of vivre ensemble, one must read in a legitimate injunction to abide by the tacit, unbending rules of membership inherent to a national community.