Framing Headscarves and Other Multi-cultural Issues as Religious, Cultural, Racial or Gendered: the Role of Human Rights Law

In many European societies emotions run high on claims for accommodating religious and/or cultural manifestations, such as wearing a headscarf at work or not being required to shake hands with persons of the opposite sex. People may perceive these issues in different ways as being about religion, culture, gender or race/ethnic origin. This article explores the question how human rights law feeds into this process of framing, concentrating on European human rights standards. What does human rights law (potentially) add to the way the issues are perceived and interpreted? What specific ways of framing will human rights law perhaps enable or stimulate? The overall conclusion is that human rights law is not a neutral factor in framing the headscarf and shaking hands issues as either cultural, religious, racial and/or gendered.