Gender and Religious Symbols in the European Public Sphere: Unveiling the Paradoxes of Italian Toleration

While the display of Muslim traditional clothes has become the target of legal and/or judicial measures in most European countries, in Italy there has been no attempt to regulate Muslim dress. This chapter argues that that the reasons for ‘Italian exceptionalism’ are multifaceted and ambiguous. They have to do with the complex and in many respects unresolved relationship between the state and the Catholic church, as well as with the role of Catholic doctrine and the influence of the church in shaping women’s roles in Italian history and society.