Gasson Professor of Political Science Pierre de Charentenay, S.J., will present “What the Islamic Veil Reveals” on Feb. 25 at noon at the Boisi Center  at noon. RSVP required. Fr. de Charentenay, who was born in France, has been a member of the college of writers for the Civiltà Cattolica, the magazine of the Roman Jesuits overseen by Vatican authorities. He is a former president of the Centre Sèvres, the Paris Institute of Higher Education of the Society of Jesus, and was the chief editor of the monthly journal of the Jesuits of France, Études, from 2004 to 2012. He is the author of nine books including Les Philippines, Archipel Asiatique et Catholique, Regagner L’Europe and Les Nouvelles Frontières de Laïcité and over 500 essays featured in French and foreign journals and newspapers. The abstract for his talk is as follows: The veil that Muslim women wear is an instrument of cultural and religious identity and has no extreme connotation within Islam. However, the veil has become a hot-button issue in France, which has suffered from attacks by Muslim extremists. The choice to wear the Islamic veil in France is seen by some as a rejection of French identity. Should the French appropriate and welcome Muslim women who wear the veil? Should the Muslim women reject the veil in order to show their allegiance to France? Can their identity come both from France and Islam? Sponsor: Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life