The prohibition of the full-face veil in Belgium: between collective hysteria and symbolic policy

This article analyses the debate on the prohibition of the full-face veil in Belgium, which was finalised in a law approved in March 2010 by the Belgian Chamber of Representatives after a discussion process in the public sphere and Parliament. First, the context of growing opposition to the visibility of Islam in the public space out which a demand for a federal law prohibiting the full-face veil emerged is presented; then, the gradual process of the law's adoption is reviewed; and, finally, the discourse and arguments used in the debate by the law’s defenders and detractors are analysed. In t... Mehr ...