Abstract

THE BURQA AND THE VALUE OF LEGAL UNITY

From a legal perspective, the’ burqa ban’ gives rise to an interesting question on the separation of national and international law.

In Italy, however, a further separation is in progress, namely between state law and regional law – in other words, between the national constitutional principles and the rules on religious freedom, which are interpreted differently by regional and local institutions and councils. As such, the burqa issue has invited debate on the value of legal unity, and, specifically, the goal of safeguarding religious freedom equally across the nation.

THE ITALIAN DEBATE AND THE DUALITY OF RELIGION

As part of the wider issue of religious symbols in the public sphere, the debate on the full-face veil (the niqāb and especially the burqa) in Italy was less lively and far-reaching than the discourse on the crucifix in state school classrooms.

However, along with the renewed fear of terrorist attacks, the increasingly multicultural and multifaith community that immigration has engendered has led to demands for greater security, public order, and the preservation of the national identity. Consequently, new issues on religious (and cultural) symbols in the public sphere have emerged in Italy, of which the burqa has now become one of the most widely debated and significant, constituting a more complex matter than it might at first appear.