Abstract

Over the past ten years, debates over laïcité have intensified in France. The right to publicly express one's religion has been progressively curtailed as the commitment to religious neutrality gained momentum - as exemplified by the 2004 law ban on religious garb in public schools and the 2010 ban on the dissimulation of one's face - i.e. the integral veil. Taking stock of these evolutions, the present article makes two claims. First, it argues that religion currently is more than a matter of disagreement in social and legal circles; it is a terrain on which legal wars are fought - an expression that is justified by the fact that disagreement goes well beyond the classic scope of axiology as procedures and formal concepts are challenged or overturned. The second claim is that these wars tend to estrange Muslim women. Muslim women are the significant Other of contemporary French debates over laïcité.