Justice must be seen to be done: organisational justice and the headscarf and burqa laws in France

Abstract

This article discusses the 'affair of the headscarf' in France in 1989, its aftermath, the 2004 enactment of a secularism law forbidding students to wear visible religious signs in public schools, and the 2010 adoption of a law prohibiting the wearing of the burqa. The article examines these events and community responses to the two laws in the context of organisational justice, which looks at individual perceptions of whether organisational change is morally right or fair, and considers whether organisational justice theories may help to explain aspects of the affair of the headscarf and the issues surrounding the burqa.