La foi musulmane et la laïcité, entre régulation publique et négociation quotidienne

This dissertation concerns the wearing of the hijab by Muslim women in government work situations in France and Quebec. On the basis of existing legal and sociological literature, we present the hypothesis that a Muslim woman who works for the State and wears a hijab will adopt a negative position toward laïcité if she is faced with a ban on the wearing of religious symbols at work, and the opposite will occur if she is allowed to wear a hijab.  In France, laïcité is a principle that is specifically mentioned in French public law, which impedes the wearing of conspicuous religious symbols by public agents or students in public schools, in spite of safeguards connected to freedom of conscience. In Quebec, laïcité unfolds in a context of public law administered according to common law. Constitutional jurisprudence has accorded it certain components characteristic of a type of laïcité that is interpreted jointly with freedom of religion and authorizes the wearing of religious signs by public agents. Drawing on various readings in law and society in order to theorize the connections that may exist between State law and the motivation of social actors, we have used the concept of legal consciousness and have employed qualitative methodology to conduct 58 semi-directed interviews with Muslim women who wear a hijab and are either current or future public employees in France and Quebec. In keeping with the comparative perspective employed in this dissertation, we have subdivided our sample to create a subsample of 28 interviews in France and another which includes 30 in Quebec.  For most of the respondents in the overall sample, namely 47 out of 58, their position toward laïcité takes neither the form of full acceptance nor of clear opposition. Corresponding to a critical optimistic profile, the majority of the respondents are rather pragmatic and critical toward laïcité, negotiating their position on a daily basis as concerning its foundation and its application. While they are predominantly in disagreement with the ban on wearing religious symbols at work, this disparity does not automatically create a negative position toward laïcité. From these results, we can conclude that for a current or future public Muslim employee who wears a hijab, taking a nuanced pragmatic position toward laïcité has less unfavourable implications for her, in connection with both her religious beliefs and her career. On one hand, we feel that these results demonstrate the fact that social situations are often unfavourable for Muslim women wearing a hijab, coupled with difficult public negotiation of identity dynamics, which weakens this position of critical optimism and therefore explains why not all of the respondents have adopted this profile. On the other hand, we believe that the indeterminate nature of laïcité for the respondents, combined with their practice of the Muslim religion being rooted in a personal desire to anchor subjective convictions to professional realities, helps to maintain such a critical optimist position.

Keyphrases: laïcité, freedom of religion, secularism, legal consciousness, Islam and hijab, sociology of law, sociology of religion, law and religion, multiculturalism, religious diversity