Kulturowe i prawne aspekty kontrowersji wokół chusty muzułmańskiej we Francji
Cultural and Legal Aspects of the Controversy Over the Islamic Headscarf in France

Summary/Abstract: The article deals with relationships between the cultural and legal sides of current controversies concerning life of French Muslim minority. Authors describe them against the background of history of Muslim minority in that country and they reconstruct the variety of different meanings of hiding the face by women in Islamic world. They present the history of French Muslims and their effort to create their representation that would be able to conduct a dialogue with secular authorities. They describe a complicated situation in the French Religious Cult Council which performs the function mentioned before. The analysis concentrates mostly on presentation of the meaning of wearing the Muslim kerchiefs by women (Arabic hijab, Persian chador, Turkish charshaf and others). During the legal analysis they use original verdicts of French courts in controversial issues concerning wearing burqas in public (e.g in schools). Main normative acts regarding ban on wearing burqas in France are reminded, as an example authors use probably the most famous casus: Dogru vs. France wich finished with the verdict of European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg from December 4th 2008. Those cases are the background for increasing religious and ethnical tension between French Muslims and native Frenchmen and they clarify limitations and obstacles in governmental assimilation programme. The article tries to explain attitudes of one of the most important social conflict in contemporary France.

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