Frontline: Muslims

Secularism vs. Democracy: A Study of the Hijab Issue

By Susan L. Douglass and Nadia Pervez  - 2003

Overview

This lesson explores the issue of hijab, or the wearing of modest dress by Muslim women as a civic and religious matter, and uses three newspaper articles to compare policies and approaches to integrating Muslim women who wear the hijab into society. These articles help students to analyze the different approaches to secularism, and to assess which approaches are more democratic, and which represent the least government intervention in individual religious liberties. Other issues include the concept of accommodating religious practices as a burden on the state, and give the students the opportunity to evaluate the relative burden on the state of women's wearing a head covering in each case. The lesson materials include a brief background piece on hijab in Islam.

Objectives

The student will be able to:

1. explain why Muslim women wear modest dress based on Islamic beliefs
2. describe the general characteristics of Muslim hijab, or public mode of dress for women
3. analyze approaches and policies described in three newspaper articles relating to hijab-wearing Muslim women in Turkey, France, and the United States (Michigan)
4. discuss the content of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (Bill of Rights) as it applies to religious liberty issues such as wearing of hijab in public.

Procedure

1. As a class, read the historical essay on hijab in Handout 1. Address any comprehension issues in the explanation of Muslim women's dress in the essay. Locate the countries mentioned on a map, and place the article in historical context in terms of world and US history concerning women's dress and roles in society. Invite the class to discuss the questions that appear in the final paragraph of the essay, or assign a paragraph on one or more, or a 5-paragraph essay to discuss them as a whole.
2. Distribute Handouts 2a, 2b, and 2c, which contain three newspaper articles on the public implications of wearing headscarves or hijab in public situations and contacts with government offices and functions such as administration, education and politics. The group of articles may be assigned to advanced students, but to save time and wear on students, it is probably advisable to divide the class into thirds, assigning each to read and discuss one article
3. De-brief each group on their work with the articles by asking (a) for one member of the group to provide a summary of the article and (b) answers to the questions at the end of each article.
4. Analysis: Using the articles, discuss the meaning of secularism as it relates to government, law and policy toward members of minority and majority faiths. Should secularism mean exclusion of religious expression from public life, or should it mean non-interference by the government in religious affairs of citizens? How does secularism relate to democracy and to modernization? Using the final paragraph of Handout 1 as a framework for discussion, relate these issues to personal expression and matters of conscience such as religiously motivated clothing, and to the role of the state in regulating matters of religion, conformity, and conscience. What other religious groups in US society are affected by such concepts and policies?
5. To help guide discussion on the issues of defining and understanding secularism and democracy, separation of church and state, or religion and government, the following is a quotation of the The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the first item in the Bill of Rights: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." For more information on the First Amendment and civil liberties, see the Freedom Forum and the First Amendment Center web site at www.firstamendmentcenter.org/about.aspx?item=about_firstamd.

Sources

1. Bob Ray Sanders, "One Woman Who Stood Her Ground," Dallas Fort Worth Star Telegram, August 3, 2003
2. Elaine Sciolino, "Letter from Europe: France Envisions a Citizenry of Model Muslims," New York Times, May 7, 2003
3. Ron French, "Michigan Tries to Accommodate Muslim Women," The Detroit News, June 11, 2003