http://www.altmuslimah.com/a/b/a/3111/
Clothing
Many layers: Examining the complex meanings of hijab
By Fatima Ayub, June 8, 2009
Writer Fatima Ayub examines perspectives on veiling in Muslim majority
and minority contexts, both in the United States, where she grew up,
and in Afghanistan, where she has lived and worked. She finds a
surprising number wear it due to a combination of social expectation
and cultural habit, rather than solely a religious act, illustrating
the diversity of thought and behavior that surrounds the hijab.
The idea and practice of hijab are endlessly contested, by Muslims and
others alike. As the recent discussions on altmuslimah suggest, there
is no conformity of opinion about the veil. Cultural norms, religious
interpretation and the individual exercise of faith all play roles in
determining the ‘meaning’ of hijab. Nothing in past or present trends
suggest that a single coherent definition or mode of practicing hijab
will emerge.
There are two fairly popular (and largely inexact) reasons offered to
young Muslims when they query the significance of the hijab as a
religious practice: that it is an outward expression of personal
modesty, and that it obviates the lure of female beauty from the male
gaze. Amongst the Muslim community where I was raised in the United
States, though a large and open one, the obligation itself to veil was
largely unquestioned, though those who follow this debate closely know
that even this point is not uncontested.
In my own experience, having lived and worked in both the U.S. and
Afghanistan, the hijab fulfills neither of these popularly prescribed
functions. Given the variety and complexity of human behavior,
certainly not all women who wear hijab adhere more rigorously to
Islamic moral codes, nor is hijab an effective means of desexualizing
male and female interaction. I do not suggest, of course, that women
who wear hijab do not do so as an act of worship, or that anyone who
sees a veiled woman should not respect her integrity, but that in
itself, the hijab is neither a barometer of a moral and ethical
decision-making, nor is it a shield for the female from the eyes of
men.
I grew up in the U.S., where young Muslim women enjoy considerable
freedom to make decisions about religious practice. There, hijab has
taken on a multiplicity of definitions and forms. Some find themselves
forced to veil by demanding parents or spouses, while others find
themselves compelled to unveil as a result of social pressure. Others
imitate the patterns observed around them -- close friends and family
members may veil and this motivates the young women to do the same.
Yet others may veil and unveil at different points in life as the
practice changes in meaning for them. Still others embrace veiling
because they consider it tantamount to an act of worship. This is not
intended to be an exhaustive list, but simply illustrates the
diversity of thought and behavior that surrounds the hijab.
In Afghanistan, by contrast, where conservatism and patrimony are
stronger social forces than religious orthodoxy, the veil is
problematized in different ways. It has unarguably been deployed as a
tool of social, ethnic and religious control, most notably during
Taliban rule, where the presumed ethnic majority fused political
control, tribal practice and cultural prejudice to enforce universal,
full-body veiling for women in public. The early 20th century saw the
veil banned by an enterprising and modernizing monarch, who condemned
the veil as backward. There are women who retain their burkas out of
habit, others who wear it to conform, and more still who continue
wearing it to limit the endless taunts and jeers that all Afghan women
face in public.
Patterns of veiling in Afghanistan reveal curious paradoxes. Wearing
some form of veil, whether a burqa, a scarf wrapped loosely about the
head and shoulders that may or may not slide off, or a thin gauzy wrap
(most popular amongst elderly women), no one is seen in public without
one or the other. Even international workers, anxious not to seem so
conspicuously foreign, will cover their heads in public.
And yet for all this, for few women does the veil carry any personal
connotation as a religious act. It is more a combination of social
expectation and cultural habit, or worn as a half-measure against
sexual harassment. From an orthodox view, the veil is worn to cover
the head and upper torso in the presence of unrelated males. Almost no
one, young or old, who I’ve asked in Afghanistan, says they wear the
veil because of a sense of personal religious obligation, and they
veil themselves only when they are moving from one place to another.
The one exception may be among Afghan women whose families lived in
Iran for a longer time; these women are seen wearing veils that
closely cover the hair, neck and shoulders (but not their faces), with
a long black cloak draped around them when in the streets.
As mentioned, Afghan women inevitably face sexual harassment every
time they are in public on their own. For my own part, I am always
dressed conservatively, with a close-fitting veil that fully covers my
hair and a loose black wrap around my torso. Walking down the street
in Kabul is an ordeal. Everywhere men stare, whisper, comment on your
appearance and grope if they catch you in close enough quarters. I had
a highly amusing exchange with one of my house guards, Hakim, about
how to assess whether a woman in a burqa was beautiful--by looking at
her hands, shoes and the gait of her walk, if anyone wants to know. So
even those in full body veils cannot escape the perpetual conjecture
and harassment.
In Afghanistan, it seems the burqa is not a marker of male oppression,
as some would superficially claim. Rather the enduring question and
problem is of defining women’s role in the public space. Afghan
society adamantly assigns all things beyond the realm of the private
to males, though this is slowly changing. The veil is largely a by
product of this contest for space and social inclusion.
No immutable conclusions can be drawn from comparing the experience of
veiling in the U.S. and Afghanistan, but the fundamental difference
towards veiling among Muslims females in the U.S. and Afghanistan is
that of agency. In the U.S., the broader cultural trend is not to
veil, and women are more able to exercise their choice to assume the
hijab for any number of reasons. In Afghanistan, veiling is largely a
culturally enforced practice devoid of personal religious reflection.
The contrast should force us to keep questioning assumptions about the
intersections between belief, behavior and norms with respect to the
veil and other Islamic practices.
(Photo: Jennifer Hayes)
Fatima Ayub is a writer, researcher and human rights advocate. She has
previously worked at the International Center for Transitional
Justice, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. Her academic
writings have focused on international policy in Afghanistan,
gender-based violations in wartime and the legal evolution of jihad in
Islamic thought. Fatima holds an MA from the School of Advanced
International Studies at Johns Hopkins University and authors a new
policy analysis blog on Afghanistan, The Digital Caravan.
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