SIMBOLI E DIRITTI - UNO STUDIO SOCIOLOGICO-GIURIDICO SUL BURQA

European politics, media and public opinion in the last decade has given prominence to the burqa as an icon of fundamentalist and almost terrorist Islam. This harsh debate has turned the typical garment of a religious and cultural tradition into a national security threat and a symbol of oppression against women. Thereby the opinion is that women are forced to wear the burqa as a duty sprung from family context or because they are considered "victims of their own culture", considering it a culture that promotes gender inequality and infringes female dignity and rights. The debate led to promulgate various measures to ban the burqa. France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Canton Ticino and Bulgaria have issued national laws, whereas other European are debating bills before Parliament. The reasons put forward by proponents of a ban on the burqa focus particularly on national security and the protection of women's rights. The analysis of these reasons allows the examination of their effectiveness relating to free will. In this context, it is important to evaluate whether the ban has enough social usefulness to permit a limitation of personal liberty (as the freedom of expression and the freedom of worship, even through the display of symbols). The examination of the Italian social, political and legal system, which has fueled the debate and the bills on the subject, leads to decrease the problematic nature of the burqa. It must be distinguished between what the symbol means and which kind of threat it really is. Meanwhile the origin of the burqa is deepened through archaeological, historical and literary documents dating back to pre-Islamic era to understand whether the symbol has much religious or cultural significance. The outcome of this analysis shows that often the thoughts of the women who wear the burqa (0.5% of the Muslim population in Europe) are not even considered. For this reason, in the fourth chapter we try to give voice to the persons concerned, such as Muslim women who wear the full veil or those who simply wear the hijab through a qualitative empirical study conducted on a sample of 30 Muslim women, 8 of whose wear the burqa. Respondents perceive the ban as an interference by the State which claims the right to interpret the meaning of the practice of wearing the burqa and to standardize its display, unlike the same States do with customs of other denominations. They also emphasize the risk that banning the burqa could lead to counterproductive consequences compared with its original purpose. In addition, women report feeling free to decide to wear the burqa and are generally available to become identifiable. Therefore the points put forward relating to the needs of protection and emancipation of women and those of public security lose value which are the main arguments that are put forward in support of a general ban on the burqa.