Women's Bodies: Between Secularism and Theocracy

This book discusses an extremely interesting and imperative topic, which is the manipulation of women's bodies; the latter are subject to exploitation by both religious/ theocratic authorities in Iran and Secular authorities in France. This book traces the transformation of women's bodies from representatives of the Western culture under the Shah to agents of the society's Islamic project after the Iranian revolution in 1979. In France, women's bodies are subject to manipulation under the name of "French Secularism/ Laicite". In both cases, the imposition or banning of the veil is regarded as an extreme violation of women's right to have sovereignty over their bodies. In the last chapter, I advocate the implementation of the terminology "Public Religion" in societies, since it ensures that the state institutions are secular and on equal stand from all citizens, and at the same time, it allows people to express their religions freely in the public space.