Adjudicating Pluralism: The Hijab, Law and Social Change in Post-Colonial Trinidad

Abstract

In 1994, fundamentalist Muslim Islamists in the Caribbean island nation of Trinidad and Tobago organized a campaign to institutionalize the wearing of the traditional Muslim headscarf – the hijab – in nonIslamic schools. A lawsuit was brought on behalf of an 11 year old Muslim schoolgirl who had been told that she would not be allowed to wear the hijab while attending the Catholic run but state supported Holy Name Convent school. The ‘ hijab case’, as it came to be known, was framed as a religious matter, but it was essentially a political contest that was played out in court in an unprecedented case in which law was mobilized as a mechanism for cultural change. Drawing on extensive research and participant interviews, this article examines the strengths and limitations revealed in this attempt to use the law as a means of promoting religious pluralism in a complex, multicultural, secular society.