Veils, Headscarves, Hijab…

A’rite people, it’s Keladry of Mindelan comin’ atcha again with more blurry unfocused…

(Unsure as to why I began in that manner).

I wanted to discuss the veil and hijab in this post. I have been intending to write about this for some time now, but kept lacking in time/willpower. Here goes.

Firstly, the misuse of language regarding this topic. Frequently, in the public domain, people use ‘the veil’ and ‘hijab’ interchangeably. This is erroneous since a veil is a piece of clothing, whereas ‘hijab’ is a mode of dressing. It’s like using the terms ‘blazer’ and ‘school uniform’ synonymously. They are related, but quite obviously not the same, since the latter can refer to a policy of wearing uniform in schools as well as the clothes themselves.

The other problem is with the word ‘veil.’ What many Muslim women wear is a headscarf, rather than a veil. The word ‘veil’ is so erotically charged that it’s somewhat ironic to apply it to the headscarf, which is intended to be part of preserving a woman’s modesty. It is true that the word is equally misapplied elsewhere – for example, with nuns ‘taking the veil.’ However, there’s the sense of taking a metaphorical bride’s veil, since nuns are effectively marrying themselves to God. Once you take the veil, you are ‘veiling yourself’ from union (sexual/marital) with others (though this may not be the case for all nuns?).

So yeah, it stands for nuns because it’s signifying their becoming ‘brides of Christ’ rather than a real bridal veil. Veils have frequently been used to signify something concealed and desirable – I mean hello, the bridal veil? It’s part of the whole sexual-marital ‘making it official’ where the man can ‘have’ his woman at last – he is allowed to lift the veil and gaze upon her. Funny that you don’t seem to see bridal veils quite as much these days… probably because people don’t feel like they need to wait till marriage to have sex?

C&Ving from Wikipedia like a good ol’ lazy bugger, we also have this:

The first recorded instance of veiling for women is recorded in an Assyrian legal text from the 13th century BCE, which restricted its use to noble women and forbade prostitutes and common women from adopting it. Greek texts have also spoken of veiling and seclusion of women being practiced among the Persian elite. Statues from Persepolis depict women both veiled and unveiled, and it seems to be regarded as an attribute of higher status.

For many centuries, until around 1175, Anglo-Saxon and then Anglo-Normanwimple). women, with the exception of young unmarried girls, wore veils that entirely covered their hair, and often their necks up to their chins (see wimple).

In this instance, you are concealing something of high value in a different sense – to differentiate between different types of women, but see yet again how there is a strong sexual dimension to it. The veil acts in these instances as a literal marker of the Virgin/Whore dichotomy that you should really bloody well know about by now. If you still refuse to believe me, Google ‘taking the veil’ and you will see that the first result links to A Little Girl Dreams of Taking the Veil, with summary:

It is the story of a girl who loses her viginity [sic] on the day of her first communion and so commits herself to “taking the veil…

Sex, sex, sex – I feel like I’m being possessed by the randy ghost of Sigmund Freud…

As you can see, ‘headscarf’ is a fairly neutral word in comparison, and a headscarf just does not have the same sex appeal that veils do. I think headscarf, and I think stereotypical, frowning old Eastern European/Italian grandmother. Or, God forbid: hippies. Haha.

However, perhaps the connotations and history of veils are instructive here.  Useful in a multitude of ways. I’ve always found it ironic that only the niqab, or burqa, is a ‘veil’ in the strictest sense. This is a garment which frequently succeeds in its aim of desexualising the female form for onlookers – not least because the eyes are often barely visible. Also, the sort of women who wear it will also follow hijab very strictly. I’ve yet to see this rule fail!

Just to inform anyone who isn’t aware: hijab involves wearing loose clothes (leaving only the hands and face visible) and covering hair for women. Apparently, the shape of a woman’s body should be as concealed as possible. HOWEVER, men also have to be covered ‘from navel to knee’ and apparently should refrain from ‘the lavish display of wealth on one’s person’, (trans.: bling). Nor is hijab merely a dress code, but also meant to work in tandem with the practice of ‘modest behaviour’, including men and women lowering their eyes when in each other’s presence (if they aren’t related).

Part of what makes the veiling of niqab-wearing women so successful, as I said, is that they follow hijab to the letter. Every one I’ve seen has been wearing the loose flowing jilbab that conceals their shape and has walked in a brisk, efficient way. They also, for the most part, are dressed entirely in black. In short, they flit in and out of sight and mind – which is what hijab for women is meant to achieve…

Hence, it is only because the veiling is supported by additional ‘full-body-veiling’ (if you will) and the eyes are only barely visible, that it works. It almost renders women’s sex invisible, except that it doesn’t really, because it marks them out as women. In the U.K, where the majority of the population are white and many Muslimahs are content simply to c0ver their heads, the invisibilisation of attraction seems to work on the whole. However, I’d like to know: what about societies in the Middle East? What about places like Saudi Arabia, where all women (Muslimahs, especially) are meant to be ‘properly covered’?

In such societies, I would be tempted to wager, the reason that women are ‘not harassed’ or ‘less harassed’ is more because they are forbidden from the public domain. If men cannot encounter women alone (or access anyone but their wives and daughters), it makes it that much harder to rape them. Except of course: marital rape. Given that a married, fully-veiled woman published a Mufti-of-Dubai-approved book on sexual relations WITHIN marriage and still received death threats… I would say good luck to those actually trying to rock the boat by gathering info on things like sexual harassment in such a closed society… even if you don’t see it, or hear of it, it doesn’t mean that it’s not happening…

One big problem I’ve always had with the idea of hijab and the headscarf are that frankly, they just are not realistic. If we lived in completely isolated, hermetically-sealed groups, then it might work. However, as I already pointed out, the very word ‘veil’ is incredibly sexualised. The problem is that the headscarf is not free from sexual connotations, because that is simply not possible. In the Middle East, it revives past notions of sexual purity and elitism, because upper-class women were veiled and prostitutes were not. In essence, you are dividing between women who are bought (wives) and women who are sold (slaves). Lovely.

Also, as pointed out in the linked article, many men are not responding to the segregation and enforced modesty by becoming more modest – they are simply turning towards homosexual sex. Proof if you ever needed it that trying to deny sexuality does not work, because it simply reroutes around proscriptions. Also, as a couple of my friends (one Muslim, one non-Muslim) and others have observed – and is perhaps intentional – the headscarf is a marker of a definitive sexual identity. They were both hit on by men professing to be Muslims simply because they looked the part!

The fact that the headscarf is supposed to be worn when a girl hits puberty, only emphasises further how it acts as an inadvertent sexual marker. It’s almost equivalent to putting up a sign saying ‘MY BODY IS CHANGING.’ As we all know, this is when a girl’s body begins to prepare for motherhood. Given how painful and awkward puberty is, I can’t help thinking that I for one would certainly not want something like that advertising my state.

Perhaps to avoid doing that, I have noticed that many girls begin wearing hijab at a very young age – some even as young as 8 or 9 years old. If we reconsider the crude sexuality of concealment and veiling in particular, this is problematic because you are effectively sexualising children. Given that hijab is about invisibilising sex, there are no two ways about it. You are saying that children have something desirable, which needs to be hidden away from foreign eyes. Considering the furore over Islam and paedophilia, this isn’t exactly a wise strategy…

Yet that’s just it, I believe the parents who encourage it are genuinely unaware of that side of things. Much more likely, it is the pragmatic issue of control that occupies them. No doubt, if you were to allow girls to wait until about 13 or 14, to have the choice of wearing the headscarf, many would refuse. By getting them used to it early, they not only develop a habit, but even a need. The thought of being without it is frightening. It is much like my vegetarianism, a habit which I had to be thoroughly cajoled into breaking.

I’m not judging at all here, might I say. I understand why parents feel the need. In a society where you are a minority, this kind of thing is totally normal. Also, in South Asian societies certainly (at least), frequently the family bond is revered and parents’ authority cast as unbreakable much more so than in British society. Again, there are good and bad sides to this – a bad side being that it can be that much harder to rebel because you are so tied up with your family. Guilt is overwhelming; it’s not just yourself you are hurting but them too. The individual self becomes fluid and then gets co-opted by the family or parental ‘self’.

To conclude this latest helping of unfocused blur: we should know whether the headscarf and hijab work or not. Certainly, the non-sartorial element of it needs to be emphasised, since it demands respect and consideration from men. Nowhere in the world is free of deeply patriarchal attitudes. Muslim men (and some women) use this reality, Catch-22-style, as a reason to essentially preserve the misogynist status quo – rightly drawing forth the familiar, if clumsy, cries of oppression. Hijab is important and even empowering to some – why? Does the answer of a woman who could be punished for not ‘covering up properly’ differ from someone living in the West? I am quite sure it would.

There are problems that hijab and the headscarf fail to address, as already discussed. Sexual harassment of women, abuse, domestic violence, etc. – these are things that it seeks to address, but can’t. Then there is a much older issue. Women are allowed to be bare-headed around male relatives – what about incest and sexual abuse? Also: how can you attempt to enforce hijab for Muslim women without dealing with the issue of prostitution? If men can freely buy sex with foreign women, or demand it from their wives’ employees, hypocrisy defeats the noble ideas behind hijab, showing them to be unattainable. The hateful, male-dominance-asserting attitudes that see women stoned to death for being raped and being forced to have sex with their husbands need to be challenged. Otherwise, the headscarf and hijab for women just look like more victim-blaming.