CCGES and the Department of Political Science Feminist Speakers Series are please to present this panel which will discuss contemporary legal debates around the veil within Europe and North America. Panelists will speak to recent concerns and legislation with regards to the practice of veiling and female Muslim subject formation in England, France/Turkey, and Canada. The panel will be followed by discussion and an opportunity to engage with their timely and critical research.
This event is open to the public and light refreshments will follow the discussion.
Panelists include:
Dr. Reina Lewis (London College of Fashion, University of Arts London)
Connecting recent international Muslim lifestyle consumer cultures to gendered consumption in the development of middle eastern modernities, this paper evaluates new British legislation protecting expressions of faith at work in relation to the role of veiled shop-girls in postcolonial shopping geographies. Addressing the ways in which the body of the veiled woman continues ubiquitous in security anxieties and debates about the perceived failures of multiculturalism, the paper explores the impact of recent court cases about the veil, or niqab, at work.
Roshan Jahangeer (Political Science candidate/CCGES Graduate Diploma Program, York University)
This paper interrogates the European subject as an ontological category of identity—one that is historically constructed, materialized and performed through Orientalist discourses. Using two legal documents discussing case studies within France and Turkey, it argues that the European subject is constructed as masculine, secular and “feminist” against the abjected re-presentation of veiled Muslim women as hyper-feminine, religious and fundamentalist.
Dr. Sherene Razack (Sociology and Equity Studies, OISE/UT)
Dr. Razack will respond to the two papers above in the context of her own work, which deals with the construct of the “imperilled Muslim woman”. Her most recent book is entitled Casting Out: The Eviction of Muslims From Western Law and Politics (University of Toronto Press, 2007). She will discuss the productive power of the imperilled Muslim woman and the continuing difficulty of addressing issues of violence and of patriarchy when doing so tends to immediately trigger Orientalist fantasies.
Time: 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM
Location: 280 York Lanes
This event is co-presented with the Department of Political Science Feminist Speakers Series.
Additional support has been provided by The Osgoode Office of the Associate Dean Research, The Nathanson Centre for Transnational Human Rights and Security and The Centre for Feminist Research.
