Questioning the Veil: Open Letters to Muslim Women
Marnia Lazreg
Language: English
Pages: 168
ISBN: 0691150087
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Across much of the world today, Muslim women of all ages are increasingly choosing to wear the veil. Is this trend a sign of rising piety or a way of asserting Muslim pride? And does the veil really provide women freedom from sexual harassment? Written in the form of letters addressing all those interested in this issue, Questioning the Veil examines the inconsistent and inadequate reasons given for the veil, and points to the dangers and limitations of this highly questionable cultural practice. Marnia Lazreg, a preeminent authority in Middle East women's studies, combines her own experiences growing up in a Muslim family in Algeria with interviews and the real-life stories of other Muslim women to produce this nuanced argument for doing away with the veil.
An incisive mix of the personal and political, supported by meticulous research, Questioning the Veil will compel all readers to reconsider their views of this controversial and sensitive topic.
Lazreg stresses that the veil is not included in the five pillars of Islam, asks whether piety sufficiently justifies veiling, explores the adverse psychological effects of the practice on the wearer and those around her, and pays special attention to the negative impact of veiling for young girls. Lazreg's provocative findings indicate that far from being spontaneous, the trend toward wearing the veil has been driven by an organized and growing campaign that includes literature, DVDs, YouTube videos, and courses designed by some Muslim men to teach women about their presumed rights under the veil.
An incisive mix of the personal and political, supported by meticulous research, Questioning the Veil will compel all readers to reconsider their views of this controversial and sensitive topic.
objects of sexual harassment. Yet, it is common knowledge that sexual harassment is rife in stores, markets, in the workplace, and on crowded buses, among other places. A number of women take up veiling because they feel that this is the best way to ward off men’s advances. They accept the notion that the veil “protects” women, and they think that men who are not their relatives share in this understanding of the function of veiling. Although there are men who value veiled women and treat them
herself before making a decision, she did not read original sources. Her case is instructive because it casts the issue of agency in a different light. By all counts Rabi’a’s decision was the outcome of deliberate choice. Yet her “choice” was constrained by the informational context within which it was made. Her family, important as it was, was not the sole motivating factor in her decision; it was complemented by the information Rabi’a gathered with the help of her sister. Because of her family,
makeup when wearing a hijab may be a violation of the injunction that women “not reveal their adornments,” assuming that these—and they are a matter of both translation and interpretation—are enhanced by eyeliner and lipstick. A woman’s piety can no more be ensured by the hijab than her looks determine her character. To argue otherwise is to reduce faith, a personal matter of conscience, to a formal display of evidentiary signs designed to reassure others, men and the community, that a woman is
troops and local warlords. They were forced not only to wear the burqa but also to refrain from working, among other restrictions. Given these circumstances, it is difficult to see how the veil could be perceived as a tool of liberation or a symbol of resistance for women who wear it outside of these war zones. These women are not taking up the veil in solidarity with Iraqi or Afghan women. That would be pure absurdity. Interestingly, a woman advocate of Al Qaeda’s worldview and wearer of the
media. On the one hand, they have been represented as oppressed by their religion, typically understood as being fundamentally inimical to women’s social progress. From this perspective, the veil has traditionally been discussed as the most tangible sign of women’s “oppression.” On the other hand, Muslim women have been described as the weakest link in Muslim societies, which should be targeted for political propaganda aimed at killing two birds with one stone: showing that Islam is a backward