Dolores Morondo Taramundi

between Islamophobia and post-feminist agency: intersectional trouble in the European face-veil bans

Womens equality claims have occupied the forefront of the European debate on face-veil bans; most claims have been denounced as mere manipulation for anti-Islamic and/or anti-immigrant political agendas, and the dilemma between anti-sexist and anti-racist struggles has been argued to be false. This article examines how opportunistic manipulation of gender equality claims and the ‘ethnicisation’ of sexism have been assessed and confronted in the scholarly debate opposing the bans, as well as the impact that this debate has had on womens equality claims and the intersectionality issue. I argue that the womens oppression argument has not been fully considered, because it would have disrupted the anti-racist struggle due to unresolved problems with understanding intersectionality.Women’s equality claims have occupied the forefront of the European debate on face-veil bans; most claims have been denounced as mere manipulation for anti-Islamic and/or anti-immigrant political agendas, and the dilemma between anti-sexist and anti-racist struggles has been argued to be false. This article examines how opportunistic manipulation of gender equality claims and the ‘ethnicisation’ of sexism have been assessed and confronted in the scholarly debate opposing the bans, as well as the impact that this debate has had on women’s equality claims and the intersectionality issue. I argue that the women’s oppression argument has not been fully considered, because it would have disrupted the anti-racist struggle due to unresolved problems with understanding intersectionality.

Un caffè da Starbucks: intersezionalità e disgregazione del soggetto nella sfida al diritto antidiscriminatorio

The article examines those developments in the field of feminist theory that have dealt with the (disappearance of the) notion of the subject of feminism, both as collective agent and as subject matter. In particular, it aims at examining how these developments might influence or relate to critical reformulations of the concept of discrimination and, consequently, of main topics in antidiscrimination law. The article starts by assessing the issue of intersectionality, that might be considered a common concern of both contemporary feminist theory and the more technical feminist legal theory. The original concern about the exclusion produced by the interaction of more grounds of discrimination (typically sex and race, or sex and class) has, at some point, been crossed by post-modern and post-structuralist criticism of general and abstract categories, such as subject, gender, women. The article examines, then, the criticism to the fragmentation of the subject produced by these theories and the alternatives proposed in the name of the subject of feminism and its project of emancipation. In the last two paragraphs, the relations of these developments with critical feminist reformulations of antidiscrimination law are explored.

Legal Pluralism and Reasonable Accommodation of Religious Diversity

This article aims to address a number of distinct characteristics of the European debate on legal pluralism as a means for accommodating religious diversity and religious normative orders. In contrast with the US and Canada, where there is a long-standing and varied tradition in jurisprudence that underpins theoretical debates and proposals, European case law is characterised by the prominent role of private international law. Public discussion has also been highly influenced by the UK controversy surrounding the application of Sharia law in arbitration. This article explores how this background shapes the space for religious normative orders, their potential as a means of accommodating religious diversity and the reasons and challenges ahead in the move from private international law to constitutional law for pluralistic arrangements.

Gender machineries vs. feminist movements? Collective political subjectivity in the time of passive revolution

ABSTRACTThe aim of this article is to pose some questions concerning kairos and feminist activism. In recent years state feminism in Spain has been presented as a ‘success story’ of legislative victories and policy programmes regarding women’ equality and equal opportunities. Only two years ago, feminist movements in Spain showed unexpected vitality in forcing the government to withdraw the intended reform of the abortion law. However, relations between state feminism and feminist movements in Spain are weak and ambivalent, and feminism in Spain, as in other parts of Europe, is said to be in crisis. I refer to ideas elaborated by Antonio Gramsci in order to identify possible barriers to the formation of relationships between state feminism and feminist movements that could impact favourably upon possibilities of collective political subjectivity and social transformation. Education plays a two-fold role in this argument. In its formal manifestations, it is a component of the institutional feminism that th...ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to pose some questions concerning kairos and feminist activism. In recent years state feminism in Spain has been presented as a ‘success story’ of legislative victories and policy programmes regarding women’ equality and equal opportunities. Only two years ago, feminist movements in Spain showed unexpected vitality in forcing the government to withdraw the intended reform of the abortion law. However, relations between state feminism and feminist movements in Spain are weak and ambivalent, and feminism in Spain, as in other parts of Europe, is said to be in crisis. I refer to ideas elaborated by Antonio Gramsci in order to identify possible barriers to the formation of relationships between state feminism and feminist movements that could impact favourably upon possibilities of collective political subjectivity and social transformation. Education plays a two-fold role in this argument. In its formal manifestations, it is a component of the institutional feminism that this article critiques, and as a series of informal pedagogical networks, education is understood here as entangled in the different expressions of feminist activism and can thus contribute significantly to the development of feminist aims.

¿Un nuevo paradigma para la igualdad? La vulnerabilidad entre condición humana y situación de indefensión | A new paradigm for equality? Vulnerability as human condition and as a state of defencelessness

Resumen: En los ultimos anos ha cobrado relevancia academica en el ambito de los derechos humanos, un debate sobre la propuesta de la estudiosa estadounidense Martha Albertson Fineman de entender la vulnerabilidad como una condicion humana universal, innata y constante. Esta nueva conceptualizacion de la vulnerabilidad se ha presentado como la base teorica de un paradigma alternativo a la teoria liberal del Estado y de los derechos. El presente trabajo analiza algunos puntos criticos de este nuevo paradigma en su relacion con la idea de igualdad, especialmente en la medida en que se presenta como una nueva formulacion de la idea de igualdad sustantiva, capaz de transcender las limitaciones que se senalan a la nocion liberal de igualdad formal y al derecho antidiscriminatorio construido sobre esa nocion. Abstract: The proposal advanced by US theorist Martha Albertson Fineman for reconceptualising the notion of vulnerability as a human condition, universal, inherent and constant, has acquired growing academic moment in the field of human rights. This new conceptualisation has been presented as the theoretical foundation for a new political and legal paradigm, alternative to liberal theory. This essay assesses some critical points in this new paradigm in its relation with the idea of equality, especially inasmuch as vulnerability appears as a new formula for substantive equality, capable of transcending the limitations of the liberal notion of formal equality and the antidiscrimination law that is founded thereupon.

Abuso y aporías en el conflicto de derechos a no sufrir discriminación || Abuse And Aporia In The Conflict Of Rights Not To Be Discriminated

espanolLa reciente decision del Tribunal Europeo de Derechos Humanos en el asunto Eweida y otros c. Reino Unido afronta, en los casos de Lillian Ladele y Gary McFarlane, la controvertida cuestion de los conflictos de derechos en el ambito de la discriminacion. Este texto pretende examinar como impactan los diferentes argumentos sobre el conflicto de derechos en la nocion de discriminacion y en la comprension del derecho antidiscriminatorio. EnglishIn Eweida and others v UK, the European Court of Human Rights has decided the cases of Lillian Ladele and Gary McFarlene that were controversially presented as conflicts of rights in the realm of discrimination. This paper aims at examining how the different arguments about the conflict of rights affect the notion of discrimination and the understanding of antidiscrimination law.