Recent French and Turkish bans on Muslim women wearing Islamic head coverings in schools, colleges and universities starts this discussion of religious discrimination and the value of inter-religious open dialogue in which neither side holds entrenched positions. The paper links dialogue with the ethnographic methodology and uses this to examine…

The particular circumstances of French history explain why that nation has adopted an unusually severe policy in attempting to suppress the wearing in schools of the Muslim headscarf. The long struggle to create French identity and then to resolve the bitter conflicts between traditional supporters of the Catholic Church and those of the secular…

The hijab, the veil worn by Muslim women, can be a touchstone issue to give students an entry into the complex nature of Islam. It allows students to discover for themselves how symbol is used as a political, social, and cultural expression of Islam by different groups, both inside and outside the religion. By starting with their own experiences…