The Muslim Veil Issue
The Veil?
I fear the symposium is dying, moved to mudpitt.
This is a lot of sources collated as well as my own opinion check the bottom for source list.
Lets rule out ignorance first off. So many like myself don't understand the differences between the veils, the coverings, the cloaks and other assorted dresses. Here is a quick reference guide, feel free to point out innacuracies.
The Burka
The burka comes in many variations, but in its most conservative form, it thoroughly covers the face of the person wearing it, leaving only a meshlike screen to see through. This refugee is wearing the conservative burka that the Taliban regime requires women in Afghanistan to don outdoors. The burka is thought to have originated in the Arabian peninsula and can still be found there today. It is not always as conservative in form as the one displayed here and often allows parts of a woman's face to show through.
Hijab
the word hijab means to cover or screen in classical Arabic. American Muslims use the word to refer to the variety of styles in which Muslim women use scarves and large pieces of cloth to cover their hair, neck and sometimes shoulders. In the Middle East, however, the word hijab has a more specific meaning, referring to the tight white headscarves favored by a younger generation of Islamist women.
Nikab
Many Pakistani Muslims wear some form of veil. This woman is wearing the nikab along with a bandana that reads, "God is great!" The veil existed before Islam existed, but it has been embraced and spread by the religion. Not all Muslim women wear a veil, but among those who do, styles vary wildly, from kerchiefs and elaborate head scarves to full face-and-body coverings
The Chador
The Chador is the full-body cloak Muslim women in Iran are expected to wear outdoors. Depending on how it is designed and on how the woman holds it, the chador may or may not cover the face. The chador was forbidden in Iran under the reign of Mohammad Reza Shah, who was brought to power with help from the United States and sought to modernize the country. After the shah was exiled during the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the chador became required wear for all Iranian women. Many Iranians today subvert their dress code by wearing Western-style clothing beneath the chador.
Dupatta
Hindu women also wear a veil, a practice that highlights the fact that veiling is not exclusively Muslim. Traditional and orthodox Hindu women will cover their heads and at least partly obscure their faces in the company of unrelated adult males. Sometimes veiling is accomplished with a loose end of the woman's sari, and sometimes it is done with a scarf-like fabric known as a dupatta
The Nikab
The nikab is the form of Muslim veiling that comes closest to what is actually meant by the English word "veil." English speakers tend to use the word veil as a catch-all term that covers all types of Muslim head and body coverings. The nikab, worn in black by this Moroccan woman, is a veil in the true sense of the word. It covers everything below the bridge of the nose and the upper cheeks, and sometimes also covers the forehead
History of the veil
Now as I am sure everyone is aware the veil is not strictly a muslim affair, it has a representation in every religion and a history of being used in cultures all around the world.
In my own history a type of veil, a headcovering was particularly popular with the anglo saxon culture and only fazed out in the Tudor period. Throughout the persian and greek (first documented in assyria) world there are records of its use as a marker of elite status with certain lower social groups or professions being banned from wearing them. They have a history of practical use as well, there are many conditions when a veil becomes useful - weather mainly. The christian in particular catholic denomination has a long history of using a veil. As seen above it is common for a hindu woman to veil herself as well.
So it is not exclusive to Islam, however, there is no doubt that Islam and the veil are now intrinsically linked and its use has spread along with Islam. Among the Arab tribes before the rise of Islam it was an uncommon practice, the rise of islam also popularised the veil. There is no clear interpretation of what Islam requires, a source of much debate between Islamic scholars and the islamic world with some muslims viewing it as completely unneccesary and others viewing it as mandatory to the point where not using it can become a capital crime.
Reasons Behind the Veil in Islam
With Veiling being a common practice in the region it is clear that it is not something Islam invented but rather absorbed into its culture and Religion. The koran is vague about what it demands and open to intepretation. It is my contention that these interpretations in the past and in the present has fallen to men, or at least these have been the most influential. There is a culture in the middle east and throughout the muslim world to a greater or lesser extent of subjugation of women and a distaste for allowing them freedoms.
I say this in the full knowledge and awareness that in Islam women gained rights not gained by western women until some 1400 years later, there is a great deal of inconsistency in the regions I speak of. That of fundamentalist and chauvanistic interpretations of Islam, and moderate tolerant Islam. I have yet to find a good debate about where to seperate Islam, poverty, education, culture and myth to determine why the prevailing attitude against women comes from. I also realise most Islamic women actually want to wear the veil. Or they see it as unimportant when they labour under other backward laws, something though that becomes irrelevant with western women in Islam.
The first reason most women would state for choosing to wear the veil (where it is a choice) is religion. They are either conforming to religion or using it to identify themselves as muslim. You may have noticed an increase in people wearing veils, since 2001 and the increased perception that muslims are under attack some women particularly in Britain have started wearing veils despite the fact that their older generation might not follow the practice. The recent years have caused many to analyse and look more closely at themselves and perhaps take their religion more seriously than they would have done otherwise. A need to identify more with their cultural roots and religion.
"A Muslim woman who covers her head is making a statement about her identity. Anyone who sees her will know that she is a Muslim and has a good moral character. Many Muslim women who cover are filled with dignity and self esteem; they are pleased to be identified as a Muslim woman. As a chaste, modest, pure woman, she does not want her sexuality to enter into interactions with men in the smallest degree. A woman who covers herself is concealing her sexuality but allowing her femininity to be brought out."
"O Prophet, tell your wives and daughters and the believing women to draw their outer garments around them (when they go out or are among men). That is better in order that they may be known (to be Muslims) and not annoyed..." (Qur'an 33:59)
The second reason is modesty. A conservative movement sweeping Islam at the moment is not just in response to world events but also with the rapid advances in education for muslim women and a gradual shift in the status of them, as they become more empowered the men feel threatened - the question of the role of the genders is rapidly shifting. A situation many would happily leave static.
The third reason is protection from molestation or rape. This is something I would question strongly and suggest anyone espousing this finds some way of analysing molestation and rapes per population of a non muslim and muslim country of comparable socio economic status and I would be highly surprised to find that wearing such attire reduces incidences.
So this is the crossroads, I can identify reasons listed above for wearing this and could not be reasonable and at the same time argue against it without admitting I can see their reasoning if not agreeing with it entirely:
[CENTER]
What then are the reasons for this:
This to me is where it becomes something else. The reasons for this are to erase all forms of identity with anyone but those permissable, not so for the man but for the woman. It also inhibits communication, where 80% of it is through non verbal means this can do nothing but inhibit. When a schoolteacher says she can communicate as well I find it ridiculous. Could a man communicate as well in a visored bike helmet? I think not.
The cultures which advocate this, the particular beliefs that come associated with this are also the ones which deny a womans right to travel alone, drive or do business without a male advocate. There are also women which choose this voluntarily, where education/peer pressure/societal pressure amongst other things must be investigated.
This can do nothing but repress the woman, if it was advocated for men as well then perhaps it could be acceptable but it is not. It is advocated for women alone.
On the politics of the Veil
Whatever his reasons for doing so Jack Straw was correct in saying what he had said. It is a debate that has to be had and as part of our society where we debate everything for its merit so should we debate the headscarf. It is not for us to say not to wear them but for muslims to examine why they wear them and what relevance they have in modern society.
When you wear something restrictive you must also accept the limitations that it will place on you. If this means you are deemed unsuitable for teaching children then you must make a choice between teaching and religion. In ancient islam where a veil would have been unpractical for rural poor women working in fields it was not worn, why then when it is impractical is it insisted upon now. The muslim council of Britain seems to follow this view as does the self styled islamic critic Salman rushdie:
Author Salman Rushdie, who was once the target of a fundamentalist-Muslim fatwa (technically, a religious-legal opinion; in practice, for Rushdie, a death sentence), has come out in support of Straw's observation about the effect of the veil. Rushdie said: "He was expressing an important opinion, which is that veils suck - which they do....The battle against the veil has been a long and continuing battle against the limitation of women, so, in that sense, I am completely on [Straw's] side."
My Conclusion
Is almost identical to Faithfreedoms author, though a little less vehement in my opinions about it. The west prizes equality and freedom above all else, the muslim niqab and all it embodies is at odds with western qualities and attitudes. There are very few things where men and women cannot compete on equal footing, something which inhibits communication and encourages segregation is going to inhibit this. We need to be moving as far away from Taleban like ideas of religion and chauvanism in our religious principles whether we are christian or muslim (in many cases neither).
If I am wrong or I can't see the cultural or religous ideas behind it enlighten me, but as I stated above it is a debate worth having.
Sources:
http://www.khrn.org/veil.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veil
http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/1219/p1s3-wogi.html
http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/humanrel...atishijab.html
http://www.faithfreedom.org/Articles...edCh/hijab.htm
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfga...&entry_id=9731
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Originally Posted by ghost665
