Between Neutrality and Control:Secularism, the Veil, and Muslim Women inBosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

This paper examines how secularism in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) selectively regulates religious presence in public institutions, with a focus on women who wear the hijab. It analyses legal and institutional responses to religious visibility in the judiciary and armed forces, based on the theories of Charles Taylor, Talal Asad, and Saba Mahmood. The paper argues that secular ‘neutrality’ is applied asymmetrically, resulting in unequal treatment of Muslim women who publicly express their faith. The hijab is not merely a symbol, but a lived religious practice, and its exclusion from public space reflects deeper norms of visibility and desirability. In a context where ethnic quotas are institutionalised, secularism has become a tool for suppressing religious identity, while other forms of identity are tolerated or even embedded in the system. This paper questions whether secularism in BiH genuinely promotes equality or instead reproduces systemic exclusion and normative bias.