The Muslim veil in the USA and France: a comparative analysis of law and policy

Abstract

The USA and France are often perceived as having different, if not antipodal, legal and political systems. At first sight the treatment of the Muslim veil at school confirms this impression, for this piece of clothing is seen in the USA as a private symbol of religious devotion and benefits from the protection of the First Amendment, whereas the same item is regarded in France, after March 2004, as a threat to the idea of French secularism (‘laicite’) and is prohibited in all public schools. While much has been written about the French statute on religious signs at school, this article takes a different angle. By adopting a comparative perspective, it looks at the treatment of the Muslim veil in France and the USA before 2004 and finds that the two legal systems offered a similar constitutional protection to this religious symbol. In particular, both systems saw the fact of wearing the veil as a private right not to be tampered with by the State except in exceptional cases – mainly associated with public order – and so both countries adopted a case-by-case approach that regarded any general prohibition of wearing the veil as a violation of well-established principles of constitutional law. The article comes to the conclusion that Statute 228 departs from the tolerant spirit shown by French law until 2004.