Document Type

Article

Disciplines

International Law

Abstract

A Muslim woman wearing a face covering, a hijab or burqa, wants to go to her job in Paris, but a recent statute prevents her from setting out for work dressed as she is. The state and the right to religious freedom conflict in many countries but perhaps no more famously now than in France. France has officially embraced secularism, larcit6, as a fundamental value along with libertd, igalitd, fratemitd. Lalcit6 suggests that only characteristics the French hold in common constitute society.' Differences are masked and relegated to the private sphere, largely inadmissible in public discourse. 2 The disguise of religious sentiment behind, for example, a uniformity of dress, presents a false picture not only by preventing personal religious expression but also by hiding how the government interacts with organized religion in the attempt to subordinate religion to the state.

Key to the concept of the modem French secular society is the bourgeois republican notion of the French Revolution (1789), which subordinated religion to the state and society. The desire during the Enlightenment period of the wealthy, but not socially prominent, leaders of the bourgeoisie to occupy a more significant place in an aristocratic and royal society was thwarted. The aristocrats and lesser royals made for themselves a network of important positions at the court and in all aspects of society, including the church. This closed-door policy simply left no access for anyone from the bourgeoisie to rise socially on any regular basis. In return, the Enlightenment directly aimed to destroy religion. French society remained closed and the revolution which brought libertd, galite, fraternit also brought violence, destruction and terror in its wake, including severe consequences for the church and personal religious 3 expression.

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