This committee, called the Stasi Commission, found that "whereas the secularity of public life has long since been recognized in the religious traditions of Europe, in the Commission's view Islamic scarves express a tendency towards religious isolation. . . . As symbols of the traditional subordination of women in the Islamic world, they impede the development of girls as autonomous persons. The command to wear headscarves in public exudes from the traditional ideal of female chastity that puts women under lifelong control of men."

XREF: Connects to the broader debate on the 2004 French headscarf ban and European secularism (laïcité) as cultural wedge. QUESTION: Why does the Commission treat Islamic scarves differently from religious symbols in 'European traditions'? What is the implied standard of what counts as secularly acceptable?

Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamopho…, loc. 807