Hopes for a post-veil society
We don't need to get under the veil, we need to get over it.
Earlier this year, the head of of Al-Azhar Islamic university found himself in agreement with Italy's extreme right-wing Northern League, the BNP's anti-immigration anti-Islam stance and Turkey's rampantly secular constitution. The subject was the veiling of Muslim women, a topic that makes for unlikely bed-fellows.
Al-Tantawi, the senior sheikh at al-Azhar, was visiting a girl's school when he told an 8th grade student to remove her face-veil saying, "the niqab has nothing to do with Islam and it is only a mere custom"adding bluntly, "I understand the religion better than you and your parents."
At his insistence she removed the veil. He said shockingly: "You are actually like this (this ugly). What would you do if you were a little bit beautiful?"
Whether you agree or disagree with his intervention, it surprises me that a scholar -and role model -feels that he can use public intimidation on a young woman, and that he has a right over a woman's clothing, defining and commenting on her intelligence, her family and her looks.
French president Sarkozy used the historic occasion of his first speech in the French parliament to pick out the veil as an issue of primary concern to the French public. It was subsequently reported that only 367 women in France's population of over 62 million wear the face veil. This raises questions about why the veil is of greater concern than other issues relating to all women, across all social groups. For example, why not raise the serious topic of domestic violence, whose victims numbered a heart-rending 47,000 in France in 2007? Further, I found it spooky that French intelligence could offer such a specific number of niqab-wearers - were these women being monitored?
Sarkozy's speech follows a ban on the headscarf in French schools and universities since 2004, not unlike a similar ban in Turkey which labels the headscarf as contrary to the country's secular principles. Turkey finds itself in the peculiar situation that the out-of-power secular party is advocating against freedom of religious expression, resulting in women who wish to veil being denied high school and university education as well as public sector jobs.
Italy's Prime Minister Berlusconi is a man who is not known for his dignified treatment of women. He too is advancing proposals with the anti'immigration Northern League to ban the veil in Italy, overturning a historic exemption in Italian law that allows the veil on grounds of freedom of religious expression.
Wherever you are in the world - Muslim country or otherwise - the issue of veiling is a hot topic. Proposals to wear, discard or ban it are put forward for political reasons that vary depending on the country. But this much is certain - Muslim women are bundled into a single-issue 'problem', and that issue is the veil. I'm not even going to elaborate on the many variations in veiling - headscarf, niqab, jilbab, burqa - because that is irrelevant to the discussion. This debate is centred around the interchangeability of 'Muslim women' with 'veiling', as though a Muslim woman and her veil are one and the same thing. To make matters worse, complex issues underlying the inflammatory political positions of people like Sarkozy and Berlusconi - issues like integration, unemployment and identity - are blamed on the veil. This is simplistic single issue politics at its worst - offering a bland and unintelligent analysis of the very real problems Muslim women, as well as society at large, are all facing, grouping them altogether as caused by 'the veil' and producing the wrong ignorant solution: 'ban it.'
This obsession with the veil as the source of contention is illustrated by the constant stream of news and opinion pieces with titles like "uncovering Islam" "behind the veil" "beneath the veil" and "under the veil". We don't need to get under the veil, we need to get over it.
If Obama believes that a nation torn apart by race issues can become a post-racial society, then there is legitimate hope for a post-veil society. It is a society where a Muslim woman can get on with the task of living her life – in education, employment, security and safety in the family, private and public spheres. It is a society where who she is, rather than what she wears is her definition and her contribution. In such a society, the veil is no longer her only definition, no longer even her primary definition. This is a society where a woman's choice to veil or not to veil is her choice and hers alone.
Earlier this year, the head of of Al-Azhar Islamic university found himself in agreement with Italy's extreme right-wing Northern League, the BNP's anti-immigration anti-Islam stance and Turkey's rampantly secular constitution. The subject was the veiling of Muslim women, a topic that makes for unlikely bed-fellows.
Al-Tantawi, the senior sheikh at al-Azhar, was visiting a girl's school when he told an 8th grade student to remove her face-veil saying, "the niqab has nothing to do with Islam and it is only a mere custom"adding bluntly, "I understand the religion better than you and your parents."
At his insistence she removed the veil. He said shockingly: "You are actually like this (this ugly). What would you do if you were a little bit beautiful?"
Whether you agree or disagree with his intervention, it surprises me that a scholar -and role model -feels that he can use public intimidation on a young woman, and that he has a right over a woman's clothing, defining and commenting on her intelligence, her family and her looks.
French president Sarkozy used the historic occasion of his first speech in the French parliament to pick out the veil as an issue of primary concern to the French public. It was subsequently reported that only 367 women in France's population of over 62 million wear the face veil. This raises questions about why the veil is of greater concern than other issues relating to all women, across all social groups. For example, why not raise the serious topic of domestic violence, whose victims numbered a heart-rending 47,000 in France in 2007? Further, I found it spooky that French intelligence could offer such a specific number of niqab-wearers - were these women being monitored?
Sarkozy's speech follows a ban on the headscarf in French schools and universities since 2004, not unlike a similar ban in Turkey which labels the headscarf as contrary to the country's secular principles. Turkey finds itself in the peculiar situation that the out-of-power secular party is advocating against freedom of religious expression, resulting in women who wish to veil being denied high school and university education as well as public sector jobs.
Italy's Prime Minister Berlusconi is a man who is not known for his dignified treatment of women. He too is advancing proposals with the anti'immigration Northern League to ban the veil in Italy, overturning a historic exemption in Italian law that allows the veil on grounds of freedom of religious expression.
Wherever you are in the world - Muslim country or otherwise - the issue of veiling is a hot topic. Proposals to wear, discard or ban it are put forward for political reasons that vary depending on the country. But this much is certain - Muslim women are bundled into a single-issue 'problem', and that issue is the veil. I'm not even going to elaborate on the many variations in veiling - headscarf, niqab, jilbab, burqa - because that is irrelevant to the discussion. This debate is centred around the interchangeability of 'Muslim women' with 'veiling', as though a Muslim woman and her veil are one and the same thing. To make matters worse, complex issues underlying the inflammatory political positions of people like Sarkozy and Berlusconi - issues like integration, unemployment and identity - are blamed on the veil. This is simplistic single issue politics at its worst - offering a bland and unintelligent analysis of the very real problems Muslim women, as well as society at large, are all facing, grouping them altogether as caused by 'the veil' and producing the wrong ignorant solution: 'ban it.'
This obsession with the veil as the source of contention is illustrated by the constant stream of news and opinion pieces with titles like "uncovering Islam" "behind the veil" "beneath the veil" and "under the veil". We don't need to get under the veil, we need to get over it.
If Obama believes that a nation torn apart by race issues can become a post-racial society, then there is legitimate hope for a post-veil society. It is a society where a Muslim woman can get on with the task of living her life – in education, employment, security and safety in the family, private and public spheres. It is a society where who she is, rather than what she wears is her definition and her contribution. In such a society, the veil is no longer her only definition, no longer even her primary definition. This is a society where a woman's choice to veil or not to veil is her choice and hers alone.
Labels: EMEL, faith, gender, Integration, Muslim, spirit21, Veil, women
posted by Shelina Zahra Janmohamed at 10:11
10 Comments:
Surely, the "legitimate hope for a post-veil society" will come true soon...
what needs is to encourage and motivate our sisters to face the challenge and win over it...
lets do it!
I'm hoping too - yes women need encouragement and motivation, but we also need men to 'change the record' too.
So any form of legal coercion is out of the question? Does this extent to other areas of religious expression such as the prohibition of drink, etc? So, for example, there is nothing wrong with complete and untrammeled freedom of conscience (whereby apostates aren't punished at all)?
I wasn't talking about legalities at all, that is a whole separate discussion about whether the law should or shouldn't have a position on what women wear.
My point was that when it comes to Muslim women,the ONLY thing that we seem to talk about is the veil.
Muslim women have other needs too... remarkably similar to all other women.
And if you'll note at the end of the article, I say: "a woman's choice to veil or not to veil is her choice and hers alone. "
I´m a non muslim swedish / finish women but I lived in Jordan for a while and there I use to wear a veil, not because I had to but because I was curious, how is it? How will I feel? Will I change? Will it affect my personality? Will it affect how people look at me? And I loved it.
It did not affect my personality. But yes it did affect the way people looked at me, I became famous among the local beduins and old women and children always invited me to their homes for a cup of tea.
Turists from western countries reacted differently, some didn´t see me, this was a stange feeling. It was as if I was invisible and this suprised me of course. Some reacted posivitily, some reacted by sayig something like "do they force you" This made me very angry, by two reasons. I´m not the kind of person who is easily forced to anything by anyone and I felt humiliated secondly, I loved this people, this beduins and they were the kindest and most hospitable people you could imagen. They would never force me. It was as if these people had traveld from their countries to middle east just to confirm the picture they had from media at home.
When I returned to Sweden I kept wearing a head scarf, not always, but mostly. It makes me feel dressed. I hope that by wearing something that to some people remindes about a veil defuse this crazy attitude that exist here against this small piece of clothing.
Women in all times covered their hairs, for many different resons. For modesty, for faith, but also because it´s comfortible, beautiful and very practical. And it surprises me that all this is forgotten.
For me my head scarf is a piece of clothing and nothing more, for my muslim sisters it´s a piece of clothing that is necessary to cover her private parts of the body.
In some parts of the world a womens breasts are not considered intimate parts of the body. For me and for all the western world they are and if someone shows her breast she show an intimate part of her body, and people react by saying that it´s a bad woman.
This is simple for everybody to understand, but it seems to be hard to understand that for a muslim woman a bigger part f the body is intimate and private and that this is a deep feeling, not something that comes from men nor from religious leaders.
I highly pespect this expanded intimaty and I will keep wearing my veil to defuse this issue.
Towards post-veil times, insha'Allah.
'And if you'll note at the end of the article, I say: "a woman's choice to veil or not to veil is her choice and hers alone. "'
Wait a minute...that sounds like it has everything to do with female agency and abridgements of it, legal or otherwise.
Please clarify.
J Wickstrom - what an incredible experience - can i suggest that you write about it in a mainstream publication. Yours are the voices that will make the change.
Anonymous, about female agency and abridgements, legal and otherwise, can you expand on the perspective behind your point, as i'm not clear of your context and what you are driving at? what is it you are trying to get at?
Briefly, would you take issue with any state that obliged its female citizens to 'cover up'? I'm just curious, I guess.
salam, peace be upon you. we write about islam too. alhamdo lellah
allahommasalleala mohammad va ale mohammad.
This is an interesting post, with many fair points. Overall I agree that wearing a veil is a personal choice, and the opposition to the veil by western European politicians is driven at least in part by political expediency. In particular by appealing to the anti-Islamic, anti-immigrant bias inherent among the voting masses of European society. From my perspective this issue is just a distraction given the serious issues faced by Muslim women. I point this out only because as you say, this issue gets disproportionate attention by pols.
Let me disagree with you on some generalizations. First, as a Muslim male living in China, let me assure you that the veil discussion is not front-of-mind every where in the world. In fact, by majority of the world's population it is an issue not even discussed in say China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Thailand, Vietnam...etc.
While I respect individual choice and agree a woman should be allowed to wear a full veil if she chooses. I agree with the scholar from al-Azhar – despite the inane remarks you attribute to him about the young girl's looks. There is no scholarly basis in religion for niqab, but many Muslim men insist women wear such dress as though it were ordained in the Koran or Sharia. I have to believe some women also labor under such false beliefs. This is a cultural invention.
If we agree there is no religious basis, isn't it at least possible that wearing a full face veil is self-limiting behaviour that should be discouraged? Women and the society in which they live are disadvantaged when women are forced (either physically or through practice) to be under utilized. Many social inventions have been discarded over time, why not this one.
Lastly, even as a Muslim, frankly I would not want my young daughters to have a teacher or other role model who wears a full face veil/niqab. I get very uncomfortable when I have to interact with these women at the masjid who I cannot see – eye to eye. If I am uncomfortable, how can I expect Europeans to not be?
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