ABSTRACT
European countries in relation to the dress codes of different religious traditions and particularly to different kinds of veil, for secularism, identity, and security-related reasons. This chapter describes the divisions in the centre-left started earlier, and more or less followed the same lines of the debate within the feminist world. The debate was complicated by the fact that some actors took into account the issue purely in terms of rights, while others also regarded as relevant the role played by the veil in the processes of integration of Muslim women. Other commentators regarded the veil as a symbol of women's oppression, but nonetheless thought that the State should not apply a legal ban on Muslim students. The over-arching factor was however the idea of a Muslim invasion of Italy and Western Europe: according to this vision, the use of the veil must be rejected since it represents an attempt to impose an alien culture in 'our home'.
