Wearing a headscarf is my personal choice

'Wearing a headscarf is my personal choice.' With this statement, Jasmina, a 16-year-old Moroccan daughter of immigrants, characterizes her position in Dutch society. The headscarf indicates her religion and, indirectly, her origins. In wearing it, she indicates to others that she is a Muslim and a member of the umma, the Muslim community. Her comment that this is her personal choice is indicative of the process of individualization that is taking place in western Dutch society, where people are increasingly faced with having to make their own decisions. The process of individualization implies detachment from collective relationships such as religious communities, but the choice to wear a headscarf appears to indicate a choice made in the opposite direction. In this article the author discusses this paradox from an anthropological perspective. © 2005 Taylor & Francis Group Ltd

Medical ethics and rites involving blood

Although the discussions in the Netherlands on ritual circumcision of girls, ritual circumcision of boys and hymen construction started more than ten years ago, these discussions about rituals of blood are not connected and offer a range of very diverging views. The significance of this article is to make clear that these diverging views and separated discussions fail to make distinctions. As a result, strategies to achieve abolition of these practices are not well thought through. The objective is to connect and to deepen these discussions by a practical method, starting with the dilemmas aid workers are confronted with. The conclusion is that other issues play a role, the issue of the space we allow others to be different and the manner in which the juxtaposition of "individual versus the group" influences this issue