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Muslim
Feminists and the Veil:
To veil or not to veil - is that the question?
by Rachel Woodlock
Introduction
Delineation
Definition of terms and phrases
Assumptions
System of transliteration and referencing
Review of related literature
Organization of study
Equality of women and men
Returning to the sources
Veiling and Hijab as understood by Muslim feminists
Freedom of choice
Notes
Appendix A
References
Introduction
At the emergence of the twenty-first century, the veiled Muslim woman has
come to represent the ultimate symbol of backwardness and oppression and acts as
a visual cue to bolster claims of the 'alarming' rise in Islamic militancy. The
groundwork for Muslim women around the world to occupy such a degraded image was
laid in the preceding nineteenth and twentieth centuries when European
colonialists became obsessed with freeing the 'Other' woman in order to subvert
and destroy the indigenous cultures over which they ruled[1]; and was
further exacerbated by the mistaken belief in feminist discourse that the only
true model of emancipation was the western model of feminism[2].
Yet, over the last decades of the twentieth century in particular, there has
arisen a strong trend of Muslim women and men who choose to reject misogyny and
androcentrism as being alien to their perception of Islam. These Muslims find
empowerment and equality by reinterpreting Islamic sources[3] to
match their vision of a religion that is egalitarian at its core[4].
If the veil has mistakenly come to represent Islam[5], and in
particular women's place in Islam, then the question must be asked what do these
new Muslim feminists have to say about it?
Thus, the purpose of my research project was to ascertain why the issue of
women's veiling forms an important part of 'the woman question' as articulated
by late twentieth century Muslim feminists. In order to discover this, I needed
to identify and analyze the most important arguments made about women's veiling
in the context of women's rights and equality as developed in Muslim feminist
academic literature.
Specifically it was necessary to break up the research into sub-problems.
First I had to ascertain who was representative of late twentieth century Muslim
feminism. The next step was to identify their arguments and analyze the most
salient features. After this was accomplished it became possible to apprehend
why the issue of women's veiling plays an important part in resolving 'the woman
question'.
Delineation
In this paper I have concentrated on Muslim feminist works available in the
English language, primarily because of my limited access to works in non-English
languages. It is also worth noting that although feminisms in their various
forms have played, and continue to play, a vital part in Arabo-Islamic history,
Azza M. Karam notes they have largely arisen on the field of practical activism.
As such an Arabo-Islamic "feminist philosophy grounded in a literary
discipline, and employed as a means by which textually and actively to critique
and counter dominant practices, is absent."[6]
This could open the paper up to criticism that I have dealt only with
modified versions of western feminism inauthentic to the Muslim narrative.
However it should be noted first, that the Muslim world is extremely diverse and
includes adherents of western backgrounds. Although they are a minority, that
their Muslim identity is built upon a western matrix does not mean they are any
more inauthentic than Arab or Asian Muslims who have arisen from non-Muslim
matrices since the advent of Islam.
Secondly, I have chosen to analyze arguments made by those I would define as
Muslim feminists, the majority of which whilst writing in the English language,
nevertheless come from non-western backgrounds, or whose non-English works have
been translated.[7]
In this paper I have not delved deeply into the ritualistic use of the veil
as part of spiritual praxis. As Anne Sofie Roald has pointed out veiling
"has hardly ever been treated as a religious question. It has instead been
usually perceived in socio-political terms"[8]. Fascinating as
this line of research would be I am primarily concerned with Muslim feminist
arguments about veiling in the context of the struggle over women's rights. As
such, a comprehensive analysis of the religious and spiritual meanings behind
veiling is beyond the scope of this paper.
As my attention is turned towards Muslim feminist responses to veiling, I
have not examined Islamist or secularist arguments directly. However, in so far
as there is an interaction between Muslim feminists and the advocators of
Islamist and secularist positions, I have looked at their approaches to veiling
in an indirect manner.
Finally this paper is not concerned with men's veiling patterns and meanings,
which is a neglected area of study. For an introductory anthropological view of
men's veiling, the reader is directed to Fadwa El Guindi's Veil: Modesty,
Privacy and Resistance, and in particular chapter seven: "The Veil of
Masculinity".
Definition of terms and phrases
A glossary of the basic meanings of the Arabic words used in this paper is
included in Appendix A.
Colonialism - control exerted by a European or 'Western' power over
'non-Western' peoples, often to the latter's detriment through exploitation in
order to serve colonialists' political and economic interests.
Hijab - in using the word 'hijab', I have relied
primarily on the definition given in The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern
Islamic World, namely that its linguistic employment is as a noun referring
to a 'cover, wrap, curtain, veil, screen, [or] partition'[9]. When 'hijab'
is used in a Qur'anic context, it also carries connotations of separating the
sacred from the mundane. However it is important to note that in the
contemporary Muslim vernacular 'hijab' is used interchangeably to refer to:
- a simple headscarf
- the entire ensemble a woman wears in front of non-intimates that covers her
whole body - with the exception of her face, hands and for some, feet - in
loose, opaque, non-distinctive clothing.
- the philosophy of dressing and acting modestly.
Intimates - called maharim in the Arabic plural, these are a
woman's husband and the categories of people to whom marriage is forbidden. They
include a woman's father, father-in-law, son, stepson, brother, foster-brother
by a shared wet-nurse, nephew, maternal uncle, paternal uncle, grandfather,
other women, household asexual slaves or servants and young children.
Islamic dress - informal uniform usually associated with the Islamist
movement, consisting of a shapeless jilbab in muted colors or black,
coupled with a khimar or headscarf. In its more extreme form, a niqab
and large abaya or chador (usually in black) is added.
Islamist - a person who adopts a worldview in which their (usually
literalist) interpretation of Islam is considered divinely mandated. Their
approach is considered to be the 'only' or 'true' (infallible) interpretation of
Islam and to which all aspects of personal faith and societal structure should
be subordinated. What differentiates Islamists is that rather than arguing that
Islam is divinely mandated and accepting that the Muslim world is a diverse
place full of differing opinions and interpretations; an Islamist will normally
consider their own interpretation of Islam to be synonymous with Islam, and
anything that challenges their interpretation of Islam is considered unbelief.
Muslim feminist - for this paper I have chosen to use a version
adapted from Karam's Women, Islamisms and the State: Contemporary Feminisms
in Egypt[10] in which a Muslim feminist is one who adopts a
worldview in which Islam can be contextualized and reinterpreted in order to
promote concepts of equity and equality between men and women; and for whom
freedom of choice plays an important part in expression of faith. They are
interested in "improv[ing] women's legal, social, political and economic
awareness and position"[11].
Orientalism - European or 'Western' paradigm which uses an aggrandised
self image by contrast with a pejorative 'non-West' (in particular Middle
Eastern and Asian cultures and societies).
Veil - it is worth noting that the word 'veil' holds a rich variety of
meanings indigenous to the English language, and so when transposed into a
Muslim context the word can carry meanings and assumptions alien to the Islamic
paradigm[12]. Having made that disclaimer: for the purpose of this
study, I have used the word 'veil' to refer to the practice of extra-ordinary
covering of a woman's body. That is, the dress or covering a woman wears in
public over and above that which she would ordinarily wear in front of her
intimates. Any other use of 'veil' is accompanied by a definition specific to
the context of the passage in which the word is used.[13]
The woman question - I have used the phrase 'the woman question' to
refer to the debate over the role and place of women in Muslim societies. In a
Muslim feminist context, it refers to the struggle to achieve equality.
Assumptions
For the purpose of this paper, I have made the assumption that veiling is
important to 'the woman question' for Muslim feminists. I have also assumed that
anyone who addresses the concept of veiling from the viewpoint that Islam is
capable (if not practically manifested) of being interpreted so as to promote
equality and equity between men and women is a Muslim feminist - whether or not
they may identify themselves with that label.
System of transliteration and referencing
I have chosen to use a modified system of transliteration and referencing
based on that used in the International Journal of Middle East Studies in
order to facilitate reading of the text. That is, I have chosen not to use
diacriticals except for the single closing apostrophe ’ used to represent
hamza and the single opening apostrophe ‘ used to represent ‘ayn. [Note:
this distinction is not carried over to the internet version of the paper.] The
exception to this rule is in reproduction of the transliteration of proper names
and titles in quoted works. Arabic words are generally italicised, except those
that ordinarily appear in English dictionaries. I have also used alternative
transliterations for common Arabic words including Makka for Mecca; Muhammad for
Mohammed and Qur'an instead of Koran and so on, in order to be more faithful to
the correct Arabic pronunciation.
Review of related literature
There are two classic works that deal with the topic of women in Islam from
Muslim feminist perspectives. They are Fatima Mernissi's Women and Islam: An
Historical and Theological Enquiry[14] (also published under the
title The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Women's
Rights in Islam) and Leila Ahmed's Women and Gender in Islam: Historical
Roots of a Modern Debate[15]. Fadwa El Guindi's Veil: Modesty,
Privacy and Resistance[16] is a more mature approach to the topic
of women's (and men's) veiling than the previous two classics. It could be
argued, however, that Mernissi and Ahmed did the difficult groundbreaking work
that has allowed authors such as El Guindi to build from their base. All three
works are considered in this paper.
While books that use the word 'veil' in their title proliferate[17],
there is a dearth of research that deals directly with analyses of the thoughts
and opinions of Muslim feminists, particularly in regard to veiling. An example
of a work on the topic that does exist is Elizabeth Fernea's In Search of
Islamic Feminism[18], which is a personal narrative filled with
scattered reflections of the author's experiences as she traveled around parts
of the Middle East interviewing women as to their thoughts and opinions on
feminism and the place of women in Islam, while giving lectures on her work and
interests in return. What is useful is Fernea's exploration of the diversity of
feminist approaches that exist in the Middle Eastern world: proving that there
is not a uniformly monolithic experience for Muslim women.
Azza Karam has provided an insightful analysis of (mainly) Islamist feminism
in Women, Islamisms and the State: Contemporary Feminisms in Egypt[19].
Rather than sticking to the usual dichotomy of 'Islamist' versus 'secularist',
Karam usefully defined a third category - that of 'Muslim feminists'. This more
nuanced approach to Islamic feminisms helped clarify my own choice of authors to
analyze for this paper.
Mention must also be made of the collections of Muslim feminist essays
included in works such as Muslim Women and the Politics of Participation:
Implementing the Beijing Platform[20] edited by Mahnaz Afkhami
and Erika Friedl; Feminism and Islam: Legal and Literary Perspectives[21]
edited by Mai Yamani; and Remaking Women: Feminism and Modernity in the
Middle East[22] edited by Lila Abu-Lughod. While these are not
the only works in the genre, they serve as examples of the rising trend of
feminist scholarship in Islamic studies.
Other works germane to Muslim feminism and veiling patterns are included in
the list of references appended at the back of this paper.
Organization of study
The body of the rest of this paper has been divided into a number of sections
based on those arguments I identified as being important to Muslim feminists in
discussing the topic of veiling as part of the struggle for women's rights.
Namely: the basis of the assertion of equality between men and women as a
fundamental tenet of Islam; the concept that Muslim women must return to the
original religious sources of Islam to stake their claims; a look at the
meanings underscoring veiling and 'hijab'; and the importance of freedom
of choice. In conclusion I answer why it is that veiling forms a vital part of
'the woman question' for Muslim feminists.
Equality of women and men
Lo! men who surrender unto Allah, and women who surrender,
and men who believe and women who believe,
and men who obey and women who obey,
and men who speak the truth and women who speak the truth,
and men who persevere (in righteousness) and women who persevere [in
righteousness],
and men who are humble and women who are humble,
and men who give alms and women who give alms,
and men who fast and women who fast,
and men who guard their modesty and women who guard (their modesty),
and men who remember Allah much and women who remember [Allah much] -
Allah hath prepared for them forgiveness and a vast reward.[23]
This is the verse of the Qur'an that sets out, without any ambiguity
whatsoever, the basic and fundamental equality of women and men in Islam. Along
with a number of sister verses that describe equality in creation and equality
of results for good works, this verse has been a beacon of hope for Muslim
feminists ever since the seventh century when Umm Salama (on behalf of a group
of women in some accounts)[24] petitioned the Prophet Muhammad asking
why God did not appear to address women as well men in the verses of the Qur'an.
According to Leila Ahmed[25], it is this underlying voice of
equality resonating through the Qur'an which is responsible for Muslim feminist
insistence that Islam is a religion of fairness and equality. Mernissi[26]
hears it too but is more pessimistic than others, identifying the voice of
equality as an initial idealistic egalitarian hope of the Prophet and "his
God" that was eventually sacrificed under the burden of community
dysfunction in order to protect the fledgling band of Muslims from
disintegration and the loss of Islam as a social experiment.
However rather than perceiving the experiment gone wrong, other Muslim
feminists argue that those verses of Qur'an and hadith which appear
disadvantageous to women are merely examples of temporary solutions to problems
that should be viewed in the context of their time. For Riffat Hassan[27],
the Qur'an goes a step further than egalitarianism by asserting the Muslim holy
book contains within it safeguards to protect weakened minorities and
disadvantaged groups. Hassan points out, however, this is only perceived when
approaching the text "through a non-patriarchal lens". Alluding to the
infamous 'qawwamuna 'ala' verse that has traditionally been used to
maintain divine sanction of patriarchy, Hassan - and Amina Wadud[28]
more directly - argue with some success that rather than being a commentary on
the general superiority of men over women, the Qur'an is providing balance for
women by giving her financial and material protection for any possible
vulnerability due to being physically responsible for bearing the next
generation. This is backed up by a more woman-friendly translation given by
Ahmed Ali in his Al-Qur'án: A Contemporary Translation than is usually
provided by translators:
Men are the support of women as God gives some more means than others, and
because they spend of their wealth (to provide for them). So women who are
virtuous are obedient to God and guard the hidden as God has guarded it. As
for women you feel are averse, talk to them suasively; then leave them alone
in bed (without molesting them) and go to bed with them (when they are
willing). If they open out to you, do not seek an excuse for blaming them.
Surely God is sublime and great.[29]
For Hassan, the equality in men and women both originating from the same
essence as opposed to the Judeo-Christian belief in the creation of woman from
and for man, means that once created equal by God, it is not for man to make
woman unequal.[30]
It is illuminating to observe earlier Muslim feminist writers such as
Mernissi and Ahmed struggling over the more 'contentious' verses of the Qur'an,
and compare their attempts with those of later authors such as Hassan and Wadud.
For Mernissi, women's equality appears briefly and then disappears. Mernissi's
God was not kind to women who tried to reach too high too fast and she reads in
the Qur'an a patriarchal compromise towards rebellious jahiliyyan men
that works against women. Ahmed deals with the issue in a considerably kinder
light than Mernissi. For Ahmed there are two Qur'anic voices existing in
competition with each other: an ethical egalitarian voice and a pragmatic
perspective that acknowledges societal patriarchy. It is the second voice, she
maintains, which has been the louder one throughout Islamic history.
However both Mernissi and Ahmed took historical approaches to the issue of
women's equality in Islam that relied heavily on western feminist-inspired
readings (in particular, for Mernissi) and orientalist scholarship (in
particular, for Ahmed).
For example, as I have elaborated in more detail further on in the paper,
Mernissi's thesis is one directly influenced by western colonialist and feminist
scholarship: that hijab is oppressive to women and an obstacle to their
freedom. Thus for Mernissi it becomes vital to explain away hijab as a
failure of the Prophet's egalitarian vision. On the other hand, Ahmed's reliance
on orientalist scholarship is shown in her willingness to uncritically include,
for example, W. Montgomery Watt's account of 'the Satanic verses'[31].
Both unconsciously reflect the western notion of the division and superiority
of public space[32] over private and link the former with men, the
latter with women. The natural extension of this dichotomy is that it becomes
necessary for women to compete with men over control of public space, rather
than re-valuing diversity of spatial roles for both men and women and avoiding
essentialising roles to gender.
As such, they both miss the more subtle opportunities to interpret the Qur'an
as demonstrating equity and equality of results rather than the mistaken notion
that equality means for women to be equal to men, which still holds the male as
normative[33].
Returning to the sources
For Muslim feminists, promoting women's equality must be approached from
within a religious context or risk alienating the vast majority of Muslims for
whom Islam is the basis of their identity. Furthermore, to discard a liberal
Muslim discourse on women's rights, as do secular feminists who reject outright
the necessity or desirability of involving religion in the ordering of society,
can only lead to exacerbating patriarchal Islamism which then becomes the sole
voice representing revivalist Islam.[34]
Thus returning to the sources to develop religious authenticity for women's
equality has two aspects. First, there must be an acceptance of the legitimacy
of women's God-given right and duty to access and interpret Islamic source texts[35].
As Nimat Hafez Barazangi argues:
[F]ull access to Islamic higher learning, that is, deeper knowledge of the
Islamic primary sources beyond the ritual religious acts, is the basis for
Muslim women to effect a change. The fact that many Muslim women rely solely
on others' interpretations of the scriptures to guide their basic spiritual,
intellectual, and physical needs is evidence that a Muslim woman's right to
understand, to choose, and to act on her choice is being compromised.[36]
Second, there must be comprehensive re-evaluations and re-interpretations of
Islam through non-patriarchal perspectives. Through this two-fold approach, both
men and women will be liberated[37].
Admirably both Mernissi and Ahmed have broken original ground when it comes
to evaluating the historicity of misogynistic traditional interpretations of
Islam. Mernissi by raising the possibility of legitimate questioning the hadith
canons that had hitherto been considered almost inviolable, and which often
contained texts degrading and humiliating to women. Ahmed, on the other hand,
undertook major research into the original matrices of the infant Muslim
community and how that community developed its androcentric bias through the
dynastic period of Islamic civilization.
From this historical basis, other Muslim feminists were able to develop
textually critical approaches that freed the way for the development of
alternative understandings of the essential ethos of Islam[38].
Although this process is still in its infancy, a noteworthy example is Mahnaz
Afkhami's list of propositions for the development of an Islamic charter of
human rights[39]. To paraphrase, she argues that only the Prophet
Muhammad had full comprehension of the divine message he bore, the rest of
humanity interprets Islam according to his or her ability. Thus by extension,
the development of shari'a is man-made and reflects the biases of those
who interpret it. Shari'a therefore, should be understood in terms of
context and culture, rather than a doctrine of immutability. As the Qur'an
specifically states that the Prophet should not compulse people in religious
activity, any social prescription is to be considered contextually bound, rather
than eternally changeless. The basic thrust of the Qur'an is towards equality
and so any examples of inequality being advocated in the Qur'an are to be
considered "time and space dependent". From this perspective - the
movement towards equality for women and men is an essential Islamic teaching
which Muslims and their societies are duty bound to implement.
Veiling and Hijab as understood by Muslim feminists
This brings us to the heart of the research paper. How have Muslim feminists,
with a background of advocating equality of men and women through
re-interpretation of Islamic source texts, dealt with the issue of women's
veiling?
At a first glance, Muslim feminists appear to be sharply divided, foisting a
variety of seemingly disparate interpretations and meanings on the veil; however
a close inspection will reveal that actually there is not one veil, but many. In
my definition of terms, I described the veil as "the practice of
extra-ordinary covering of a woman's body". This, I feel, is the most basic
and inclusive description I could give it. However as El Guindi points out, in
order to properly understand the phenomenon of veiling (and thus Muslim
feminists responses to the practice), we must go beyond examining what the veil
is, who practiced veiling, and whether or not it is 'authentic' to Islam.
Instead we must ask what is the meaning behind the different types of veils?
Is it the same veil that is being documented throughout the millennia? Does
the practice have the same meaning when situated in contexts of different
cultural ideologies, different societies, different times? The issue becomes,
then, not whether it was a passing custom or whether we can consider veiling
an institution or not, but rather what is the meaning of the veil in the
various historical and cultural contexts and what does the phenomenon reveal
about the culture within which it is embedded at any time in history.[40]
In the context of women's rights then, the question becomes, what do these
various veils have to say about women and their state of equality or inequality
in society?
For Mernissi, the hijab (which is conflated to mean the veiling and
seclusion of the Prophet's wives as well as the veiling and later seclusion of
the generality of Muslim women) is a dramatic example of the failure of the
Prophet's egalitarian dream[41]. In defining hijab, and thus
reacting against it, Mernissi relies heavily on the rather uncharitable
definitions given in the Encyclopedia of Islam[42] in which
the hijab is defined in four ways: the traditional head-cover of Muslim
women, worn at the on-set of puberty; the Ummayyad-introduced curtain behind
which the caliph hid himself (and presumably his excesses) from the purview of
his subjects; the mystical veil which divided the sacred and the mundane and
which the mystic seeker attempted to destroy[43]; and finally as an
amulet or talisman[44]. Consequently, Mernissi spends a great deal of
time attempting to present the hijab as inauthentic to the truer message
of the Prophet's Islam. She has the Prophet in a period of great stress and
turmoil 'giving in' to the advice of the sterner 'Umar who urged for the
adoption of veils by the wives of the Prophet[45].
Likewise, Ahmed attempts to demonstrate that the practice of veiling was
assimilated from surrounding cultures, and not indigenous to Islam (although
this is not necessarily contested - it was the Prophet's practice to take
previously pagan rituals and reinvest them with a new Islamic meaning[46],
a point Ahmed does not address). In particular she makes reference to the phrase
'taking the veil' as being understood to refer to a woman's marriage to the
Prophet[47]. Neither Ahmed, nor Mernissi assess the strength of those
ahadith which appear to imply that ordinary Muslim women of the Prophet's
community took up the veil toward the end of the Prophet's Madinan period[48].
Ahmed is also concerned that the late twentieth-century adoption of 'Islamic
dress' has had a deleterious effect on the women's rights movement by
unconsciously affirming traditional patriarchy and buying into the colonialist
discourse[49]. Having developed as a resistance narrative against
western colonialism, Ahmed argues, the Islamist adoption of the new veil simply
entrenches the debate over veiling and cultural identification. In short, she
maintains Islamists say if to be 'Western' is to be unveiled; then to be veiled
is to be Muslim.
There is an element of truth in Ahmed's perspective: Islamist discourse is
heavily interested in negating western colonialism but it identifies this
influence as jahiliyyan. Ahmed misses the correlative adoption of a new
moral code[50] by those who have taken on Islamic dress, which
mandates not only the hijab for women, but for men also[51].
Nevertheless for El Guindi, arguments of Islamic authenticity of veiling are
moot. El Guindi presents a comprehensive analysis of (mainly) Arab veiling[52].
For her, it is important to point out that Arab culture carries connotations of
sacredness in the private domain[53]. Just as Muslims convert
ordinary mundane space into temporarily sacred space through the ritual
cleansing and performing of prayer wherever they may happen to find themselves -
so too, El Guindi argues, Muslim women carry their sacred private space into
public by use of the veil. El Guindi's weakness is that she does not attempt to
place any value judgement on the various forms of veiling and seclusion she
describes, and thus does not present her views on women's equality.
Freedom of choice
As for what Muslim feminists argue women should wear to conform to
Islamic ideals: unlike Islamists, who maintain that the hijab stands as
the very symbol of Muslim piety; the most important element for Muslim feminists
appears to be the element of freedom of choice in interpreting the Islamic dress
code.[54] Mai Yamani writes: "The relevant question for Muslim
feminists today is the element of choice attached to the garment, and whether it
is a woman's right to choose whether to veil or not."[54]
Likewise, Amina Wadud emphasizes the idea that the Qur'an teaches the
importance of modesty but that specific injunctions as to type of dress depend
on culture and context[56]. This is similar again to the opinions of
reformists Muhammad Shahrur and 'Abdul-Halim Abu Shaqqa. For Shahrur, the
Qur'anic injunctions about dress for both men and women are read in the context
of maximum and minimum limits of respectability. Both a naked woman and a
totally covered woman have brought themselves outside the bounds of Qur'anic
respectability, according to Shahrur[57]. 'Abdul-Halim Abu Shaqqa on
the other hand argues, a cultural relativism in regard to dress[58].
However it should be pointed out that both Shahrur and Abu Shaqqa nevertheless
are still male scholars defining women's dress for women; albeit in a
modern-friendly fashion.
So in conclusion, I propose that the fundamental reason why women's veiling
is important to the question of women's rights according to Muslim feminists, is
because power over the veil represents freedom of choice. In particular, the
ability to choose whether to veil or not, in accordance with the Muslim
feminist's own personal interpretation of Islamic faith and morality, is at the
very heart of what Islam represents to Muslim feminists: the basic Qur'anic
ethic of the sovereign right of both women and men as human beings who have the
freedom of self-determination.
Notes
[1] Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of
a Modern Debate, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), 166.
[2]Lila Abu-Lughod, ed. Remaking Women: Feminism and Modernity
in the Middle East, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998), 14.
[3]The Qur'an; the sunnah (or practice) of the Prophet
Muhammad as it is revealed in the canonic texts of ahadith; and to a
lesser extent the body of juristic interpretation made by Islamic scholars over
the centuries.
[4]Amina Wadud, Qur'an and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text
from a Woman's Perspective, New York (New York: Oxford University Press,
1999), ix.
[5]As discussed in personal communication between Fadwa El Guindi
and Yvonne Haddad, quoted in Fadwa El Guindi, Veil: Modesty, Privacy and
Resistance, (Oxford: Berg, 1999), 10.
[6]Azza M. Karam, Women, Islamisms and the State: Contemporary
Feminisms in Egypt, (Great Britain: Macmillan Press Ltd, 1998), 5.
[7]I am suspicious of the simple dichotomy of dividing the world
into 'Western' versus Islamic given the rich history of interplay and influence
between the various cultures. A simple example to demonstrate the fallacious
nature of the divide - implying that there is a 'pure' West and a 'pure' Islam
which "never the twain shall meet" - is to point out that from the
very beginning the Prophet Muhammad had to deal with Jewish, Christian and
polytheistic communities. The Qur'an is filled with examples of the results of
the meetings of these groups and their influence on the infant Muslim community.
Another striking example of the connection between Muslim and non-Muslim is the
influence of Greek thought and philosophy in the lives and works of eminent
Muslim scholars such as Al-Farabi, Ibn Sina and Ibn Rushd and conversely their
influence on European philosophy.
[8]Anne Sofie Roald, "Notions of 'Male' and 'Female' Among
Contemporary Muslims: With Special Reference to Islamists", in Islamic
Studies, 38:3 (1999): 369.
[9]John L. Esposito, ed., The Oxford History of Islam,
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 108-111.
[10]Karam, Women, Islamisms and the State, 4; 11-13.
[11]ibid., 4.
[12]Refer to El Guindi, Veil, 31.
[13]A word of caution should be made, however, in that the English
word 'veil', which covers all aspects of the practice of veiling, has no Arabic
equivalent. This points to the complexity and diversity of indigenous concepts
of veiling which is often missed in English by ease of reference. See ibid., 7.
[14]Fatima Mernissi, Women and Islam: An Historical and
Theological Enquiry, trans. Mary Jo Lakeland, (Oxford: Basil Blackwell,
1991).
[15]Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam.
[16]El Guindi, Veil.
[17]This point is made by Sondra Hale in "The West and
Veiling", a lecture given as part of an open forum "Veiling and the
Media", (Los Angeles, May 1998), http://www.isop.ucla.edu/cnes/outreach/media/veiling/
[18]Elizabeth Fernea, In Search of Islamic Feminism: One
Woman's Global Journey, (New York: Anchor Doubleday, 1998).
[19]Karam, Women, Islamisms and the State.
[20]Mahnaz Afkhami and Erika Friedl, ed. Muslim Women and the
Politics of Participation: Implementing the Beijing Platform, (United States
of America: Syracuse University Press, 1997).
[21]Mai Yamani, ed. Feminism and Islam: Legal and Literary
Perspectives, (Berkshire: Ithaca Press, 1996).
[22]Abu-Lughod, ed. Remaking Women.
[23]Surah "The Clans" 33:35 in Mohammed Marmaduke
Pickthall, trans., The Meaning of the Holy Qur'an: An Explanatory Translation,
reprint, (New Delhi: UBS Publishers Ltd., 1994), 304.
[24]Mernissi, Women and Islam, 118-120.
[25]Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam, 63-6.
[26]Mernissi, Women and Islam, 139.
[27]Riffat Hassan, "Women's Rights and Islam: From the ICPD
to Beijing", in "Interfaith Reflections of Women, Poverty, and
Population: Essays on Global Population and Development Issues", no date
given, http://www.cedpa.org/trainprog/ifc/pewhassa.htm
[28]Wadud, Qur'an and Woman, 70-74.
[29]Surah "The Women" 4:34 in Ahmed Ali, trans.,
Al-Qur'án:
A Contemporary Translation, revised edition (Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1988), 78. Ali has tried hard to avoid tainting his Qur'anic translation
with the stigma of domestic abuse: a charge often leveled at the more
traditional translations which have God permitting husbands to 'beat' their
wives.
[30]Hassan, "Women's Rights and Islam".
[31]For an apologetic refutation of the theory of 'the Satanic
verses' see: http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Polemics/sverses.html
[32]As El Guindi notes the dichotomy of public versus private
space was most strongly developed in Victorian England and that the projection
of the superiority of public space is an Anglo-Saxon idea. See El Guindi, Veil,
81-82.
[33]Carol Tarvis, The Mismeasure of Woman, (New York: Simon
and Schuster, 1992),17.
[34]Karam, Women, Islamisms and the State, 11.
[35]Mai Yamani points out that reinterpretation of texts, even by
women, is not new. She writes: "[t]he Qur'an has been interpreted and
reinterpreted from the time of Revelation to the present, including by
women." See Yamani, Feminism and Islam, 2. Further to this, Ahmed
points out that: "the decision to regard androcentric positions on [women's
rights and roles] as intended to be binding for all time was itself an
interpretative decision, reflecting the interests and perspective of those in
power during the age that transposed and interpreted the Islamic message into
the textual edifice of Islam." See Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam,
67.
[36]Nimat Hafez Barazangi, "Muslim Women's Islamic Higher
Learning as a Human Right: The Action Plan", in Muslim Women and the
Politics of Participation, 44.
[37]Hassan, "Women's Rights and Islam".
[38]It would be remiss at this point to neglect to mention the
contribution of the late Fazlur Rahman to modern re-development of Qur'anic
exegesis. In Islam and Modernity: Transformation of an Intellectual Tradition,
Rahman elaborates on the necessity of approaching the Qur'an holistically as
yielding a definite "weltanschauung". By understanding the entire
context of the particular 'moment' of Qur'anic revelation, Rahman argued, it is
possible to extrapolate essential principles which can then be applied to new
problems which human beings and their societies need to resolve in order to
truly implement Islamic praxis in any given time and culture. See: Fazlur Rahman,
Islam and Modernity: Transformation of an Intellectual Tradition,
(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1982), 20.
[39]Mahnaz Afkhami, "Claiming Our Rights: A Manual for
Women's Human Rights Education in Muslim Societies", in Muslim Women and
the Politics of Participation, 110.
[40]El Guindi, Veil, 12.
[41]Mernissi, Women and Islam, 178-179.
[42]B. Lewis, V.L. Menage, Ch. Pellat and J. Schacht, ed. "Hidjab"
in Encyclopedia of Islam, new ed., vol. 3, (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1971),
359-361.
[43]This seems to be a reductionist reading of Sufi literature on
the topic that Mernissi repeats (Mernissi, Women and Islam, 95). At the
very least it is worthy pointing out that God is veiled from his creation does
not imply inferiority on his part, but quite the reverse. Also, there exist
positive examples of veiling in Sufi literature, such as descriptions of the
female mystic-ascetic Rabi'a of Basra: "That one set apart in the seclusion
of holiness, that woman veiled with the veil of religious sincerity..."
See: Margaret Smith, Rabi'a the Mystic and Her Fellow-Saints in Islam: Being
the Life and Teachings of Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya Al-Qaysiyya of Basra together with
some account of the place of the women saints in Islam, reissued edition,
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 3.
[44]A comparison with the more recent entry authored by El Guindi
in The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World, ed. John L.
Esposito, vol. 2, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 108-111
demonstrates a shift in appreciation of the hijab by western scholars.
[45]Mernissi, Women and Islam, 106-114; 185.
[46]For example, the rites associated with the pilgrimage to Makka
were derived from pre-Islamic rituals.
[47]Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam, 55.
[48]For example: "Narrated Um 'Atiya: We were ordered to
bring out our menstruating women and veiled women in the religious gatherings
and invocation of Muslims on the two 'Id festivals. These menstruating women
were to keep away from their musalla. A woman asked, 'O Allah's Apostle! What
about one who does not have a veil?' He said, 'Let her share the veil of her
companion.'" 1:8:347 in M. Muhsin Khan, trans., "Translation of Sahih
Bukhari", http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/bukhari/
and: "Narrated 'A'isha, Ummul Mu'minin: Safiyyah, daughter of Shaybah, said
that 'A'isha mentioned the women of Ansar, praised them and said good words
about them. She then said: When Surat an-Nur came down, they took the curtains,
tore them and made head covers (veils) of them." 32:4089 in ibid. etc.
[49]Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam, 166-167.
[50]El Guindi, Veil, 161-2.
[51]In this case, the male hijab is considered to be loose,
opaque, non-distinctive clothing that at the very minimum covers the area
between the navel to the knees, but usually includes a male shirtdress, beard
and topi or other form of male head-cover.
[52]I feel it is important to point out that literature on Muslim
veiling focuses almost exclusively on non-western Muslims - the exceptions being
apologetic literature aimed at western audiences and brief references to veiling
by western Muslim women in works such as Laleh Bakhtiar's Sufi Women of
America: Angels in the Making, (Chicago: The Institute of Traditional
Psychoethics and Guidance, 1996). That is, 'Muslim' has become synonymous with
'Arab' and / or 'Asian' identity. There are a number of possible reasons for the
exclusion of the western Muslim experience of veiling. First, it is true to say
that historically and numerically Islam has had its most direct influence on the
peoples and cultures of North Africa, the Middle East and Asia. While there was
an indirect influence of Islam on Europe, which some scholars have argued led to
the development of the European renaissance (see John L. Esposito, ed., The
Oxford History of Islam, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 602);
conversion to Islam and the corresponding development of western-indigenous
Muslim communities has been a comparatively recent trend impacted by migration
patterns of African, Arab and Asian Muslims into Europe, America and Australia
(broadly speaking). More importantly though, up until recently, the overwhelming
emphasis in western orientalist attention on Islam was predicated upon a
caricature in which 'Islam' and 'the West' served as polar opposites. That there
could be such a thing as a western-Muslim identity would have been rejected
outright as oxymoronic had it ever been properly considered. Nevertheless the
existences of growing numbers of Muslims whose ethnic backgrounds include
Celtic, Anglo-Saxon or American (to provide but three examples) belies the
assumption that Islam belongs outside of 'the West'. How and why veiling is
adopted (or not) by western Muslims is a neglected area of study, which could
provide much insight into visions of identity and culture and their place within
legitimately alternative Islamic frameworks.
[53]El Guindi, Veil, 94-95.
[54]I think it is noteworthy that neither Mernissi nor Ahmed
elaborated in any great detail on freedom of choice in veiling. Writing in an
earlier period than authors such as El Guindi, Yamani, Karam, Afkhami, Hassan
etc. both Mernissi and Ahmed don't appear to have had the freedom to argue that
veiling was essentially a woman's choice. Instead, they both seem to have felt
it necessary to de-emphasise and negate the compulsory nature of traditionally
accepted opinions about women's dress.
[55]Yamani, Feminism and Islam, 20.
[56]Wadud, Qur'an and Woman, 10.
[57]Munira Fakhro, "Gulf Women and Islamic Law" in
Feminism
and Islam, 253-254.
[58]ibid.,255.
top
Appendix A
Glossary of the basic meanings of the Arabic words used in this paper:
abayah: large outer covering with sleeves that is draped over the body
(and sometimes pulled up over the head as well).
ahadith: plural of hadith.
chador: large one-piece outer covering that is draped over the head
and body and usually worn by Iranian women.
hadith: report or saying attributed to the Prophet Muhammad through a
chain of transmitters.
hijab: (see definition of terms and phrases).
khimar: head covering.
jahiliyyan: belonging to the age of ignorance before the advent of
Islam. Can also refer to a general state of unbelief and ignorance.
jilbab: loose opaque dress or gown.
maharim: those people either already married to each other, or
forbidden for marriage.
niqab: face veil.
shari'a: religious law governing all aspects of Islamic life.
top
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©Copyright 2000 Rachel Woodlock All Rights Reserved.
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