Hosted by ANU Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies (CAIS)

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In the early 1990s, Turkey was the only Muslim country where a headscarf ban in schools, universities and public institutions existed. In the aftermath of 9/11, especially in the West, there occurred a troubling exclusion of pious Muslim women from the public sphere in the name of secularism, liberalism, and women’s rights. In this lecture Professor Elver argues that judicial system and law could be used to change underlying social conditions shaping the social contract, role of religion, and the position of women in modern society.

Hilal Elver has been a Research Professor at the University of California - Santa Barbara since 2002. She holds a PhD from the University of Ankara Law School, and SJD in UCLA Law School. She has worked with the Turkish government as the founding legal advisor of the Ministry of Environment, then the General Director of Women’s Status in the Prime Minister’s Office and in 1994, was appointed to the Chair in Environmental Diplomacy by the UNEP at the Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies in Malta. Currently, Professor Elver is the co-director of the project on Climate Change, Human Security and Democracy at the UCSB Orfalae Center for Global Studies.

Publications focusing on international environmental law, human rights law, particularly environmental rights, climate change and women’s rights include; Peaceful Uses of International Rivers: Case of Euphrates and Tigris Rivers (2002), and The Headscarf Controversy, Secularism and Freedom of Religion (Oxford University Press, 2012).

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For enquiries please contact Tamara at CAIS (02) 6125 4982