Domination and the Hijab in Irish Schools
31 Dublin University Law Journal 127
27 Pages Posted: 2 Sep 2015
Date Written: 2009
Abstract
This article considers the question of the wearing of religious insignia in public schools through the lens of the neo-republican account of freedom as non-domination. It looks at a particular controversy that arose in an Irish Catholic school relating to the possible exclusion of a headscarf-wearing student. The article argues that the combination of a) a predominance of Catholic-run schools and b) exemptions in equality legislation allowing discrimination in the case of faith-based schooling brings about domination of non-Catholic families. The fact that there is generally no exclusion (but rather the capacity to exclude) makes the context particularly illustrative for the 'domination-without-interference' thesis argued by Philip Pettit and other neo-republican scholars
Keywords: freedom as non-domination, republican theory, religion and state
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