State Veil:Turkey France

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

The State and the Veil: Analyzing Veiling Politics in Turkey, Algeria, And France. "Turkey has witnessed two revolution in perception on the veil in the last century--with the rise of Kemel Ataturk a secularist, and the rise of Islamism in the late 1990s. France and other Western countries with colonial histories have experienced a 'veiling crisis', and Algeria's struggle for national identity has been called 'the battle of the veil'. The course will examine the politics of the veil in these three nation states, with the primary focus on Turkey. We will analyze: the ideologies of states as global actors, the role of religion as both liberalizing and conservatizing, and the role of gender in mobilizing social groups. Women's agency in choosing to veil confounds Western feminists but restores to many Muslim women what Westernization and sexual commodification remove: modesty, dignity,and privacy. Visiting speakers will augment our understanding from first person perspectives."