Contentious Citizenship: Policies and Debates on the Veil in the Netherlands

In this contribution, we present an analysis of the regulations and public debates regarding the veil in the Netherlands between 1999 and 2006, thereby exploring the idea that the framing and regulating of veiling reflect national traditions of citizenship. In line with our hypothesis that the legacy of pillarization makes religious identity claims highly legitimate in the Netherlands, we found regulations to be accommodating. In the Dutch legal debate, the veil was mainly discussed in terms of neutrality. Sustaining our hypothesis was also the relatively large presence of Muslim(a)s in the pu... Mehr ...