Return-Path: <nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id g14Nuxu04442; Mon, 4 Feb 2002 18:56:59 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 4 Feb 2002 18:56:59 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <007001c1adef$7011faa0$5d942644@ewndsr01.nj.comcast.net> Errors-To: alcrsb@langate.gsu.edu Reply-To: nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: "ujwala samant" <usamant@home.com> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-WOMENLIT:1977] Long but VERY interesting article on the veil X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2615.200 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; Status: O Content-Length: 25535 Lines: 555 This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_006D_01C1ADAC.618A0560 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable A friend sent me this and whilst I do not know where the article was = retrieved from, it sheds some light on the veil. ----- Original Message -----=20 From: Patricia Medina=20 ----- Original Message -----=20 Veiled intentions: The burqa is a powerful symbol misused by Islamists = and Western feminists alike. By Norah Vincent Feb. 1, 2002 |=20 When Westerners talk about misogyny and the fate of women in Islamist = countries, they fall at once for the decoy, the surface indicator by = which all fundamentalist regimes are measured and judged. It's the same = decoy that Islamists use again and again, in every country they = dominate, to draw their own countrymen's attention away from the real = social, economic and political problems at hand -- problems they came to = power promising to solve, but rarely do. That decoy is, of course, the veil, the abaya, the burqa, the chador, = the jalabiyya, and every other possible version, extent or form of hijab = that women are expected, and often forced, to wear throughout the Middle = East and in some parts of Africa. The veil is the common currency of subjection, or so the West considers = it, and it is the yardstick of Muslim purity, or so the fundamentalists = have conceived it. It is a pawn in the propaganda war between the major = players in Samuel Huntington's clash of civilizations, or what Ian = Buruma has dubbed the Occidentalists (those who demonize the West) and = the Orientalists (those who demonize the East). Both sides see the veil as the centerpiece of their causes, but both are = wrong. The Islamists are wrong because the veil isn't Islamic, and the = West is wrong because the veil isn't necessarily repressive. The veil is a symbol manipulated both by those who would willfully = misread the Quran to suit their political ends, and by neo-crusaders in = the feminist free world who misunderstand its original, and some would = say true, meaning and purpose. The Western feminist obsession with the = burqa as symbol of oppression is everywhere.=20 Take the Feminist Majority Foundation, the new publisher of Ms. = Magazine, for example.=20 On its Web site, it offers, I kid you not, a "Burqua Swatch," which one = can purchase as a "symbol of remembrance of Afghan women" for the low, = low price of $5. "This swatch of mesh represents the obstructed view of = the world for an entire nation of women who were once free," according = to the foundation's ad copy. Gift packs of 10 and 20 are also available. The veil has been an instant, though superficial, indication of reform = in either direction, toward or away from the West. When Kemal Ataturk = came to power in Turkey in the 1920s, for example, he banned the veil in = order to banish what he saw as Mideastern backwardness, and to ally = himself culturally and politically with the admired West. Turkey remains = the one ferociously and consistently secular government in the Islamic = world. Likewise, during the war in Afghanistan, shedding the veil became a kind = of ceremony of freedom for the country's harshly sequestered second sex. = The Western press reported that the first thing many Afghan women did = after being liberated from Taliban rule was to tear off their burqas, = walk outside and feel the sunshine on their faces for the first time in = years. Elsewhere, the veil has been used to quite different effect. During the = lead up to the 1979 revolution in Iran, for instance, female supporters = of the Ayatollah Khomeini donned the veil voluntarily as a form of = protest against the reigning shah. Doing so was considered a pledge of = support for the harsh religious reforms Khomeini espoused as a means of = purifying the country of the debauched Western influences he blamed for = the corruption and mismanagement of the shah's regime. So what should we make of this symbolically loaded change of clothes? It = has been said more than a few times lately that Islamist dress codes are = really all a sham, and that they have nothing to do with the Quran. As Jan Goodwin has written in "Price of Honor," her extensive treatment = of women in the Islamic world: "The severe restrictions placed on women = by the Islamist movement, such as confinement or complete veiling, have = no basis in the Koran or the teachings of the Prophet ... veiling the = face is an innovation that has no foundation whatsoever in Islam." .. veiling the face is an innovation that has no foundation whatsoever = in Islam." Many among Muslim experts say the same. According to Islamic scholar = Zaki Badawi, the Quran is quite simple and direct on the matter of = veiling. Women, it says, should not show "their adornment except what = normally appears." Among literalists, "what normally appears" has = generally been accepted to mean the face and hands, and sometimes the = hair, but has varied according to local custom. One thing is certain: = Shrouding the face is specifically never mentioned in the Quran. The Quranic pronouncement most often quoted to justify the veil (Verse = 53 of Sura 33) is known among experts as "the verse of the hijab," and = is related to an instance in the prophet's life when several male guests = had lingered too long after a wedding supper, and thereby invaded the = privacy of the prophet, who was eager to be alone with his new wife. = Thus, he said: "[W]hen ye ask of them (the wives of the prophet) anything, ask it of = them from behind a curtain [hijab]. That is purer for your hearts and = for theirs." According to Moroccan sociologist Fatima Mernissi, however, this verse = is often misunderstood: "The verse of the hijab 'descended' in the bedroom of the wedded pair to = protect their intimacy and exclude a third person -- in this case, Anas = Ibn Malik, one of the Prophet's [male] Companions ... The veil was to be = God's answer to a community with boorish manners whose lack of delicacy = offended a Prophet whose politeness bordered on timidity." Some of the prophet's other utterances regarding women -- which are, = conveniently enough, never quoted by extremists -- reinforce Mernissi's = interpretation of Mohammed's vision for proper, but not necessarily = rigid, relations between the sexes. "He who honors women is honorable, he who insults them is lowly and = mean." "Treat your women well and be kind to them." And finally, in an admonition to both sexes, Mohammed pronounced: "Say = to the believing men that they should lower their gaze and guard their = modesty ... and say to believing women that they should lower their gaze = and guard their modesty." Clearly the onus of sexual purity falls as = much on men as it does on women. But if the veil is not a requirement of Islam, where did it come from? = Goodwin, among others, argues that far from being a religious mandate, = the veil "originated as a Persian elitist fashion to distinguish = aristocracy from the common masses." Mernissi supports this view, and = offers historical support for the surprising notion that early on, men, = not women, donned the veil. "The Encyclopedia of Islam tells us that the = hijab is among other things the curtain behind which the caliphs and = kings sat to avoid the gaze of members of their court." Nonetheless, despite what Westerners like to think, not all Islamic = women revile the hijab. Many are grateful for it, and wear it willingly = and devoutly, as a form of personal religious observance, a grateful = submission (Islam means "submission") to God, even if it's not mandated = by the Quran. Catholic nuns and Orthodox Jewish women all over the = world, including in the West, do the same, and for similar reasons. = What's more, they do so as a matter of choice. Muslim women also often make what sounds conspicuously like a Western = feminist argument for wearing the veil, and it is a surprisingly cogent = one. When they are covered, some Muslim women say, not only are they = freed from petty concerns about painting their faces for male approval, = they are likewise hidden from the often oppressive intrusion of the male = gaze. Not such a bad idea when you think of it. After all, what Western = woman hasn't sometimes wished to be invisible when walking through a = gantlet of whistling construction workers on their lunch break, or = working out in a coed gym when she's 20 or 30 pounds overweight? = Considered in this context, the veil is, arguably, freeing, even a = welcome encumbrance. One Iranian woman, Zahra Rahnavard, expressed this same opinion when she = told Goodwin: "The veil frees women from the shackles of fashion, and = enables them to become human beings in their own right ... Once people = cease to be distracted by women's physical appearance, they can begin to = hear their views and recognize the inner person." In practice, this = isn't always what happens, but then again, in practice, Western women's = "liberation" is not always what it should be either. As American feminists made so clear during the sexual revolution, = women's fashions are an expression of, and a vehicle for, perpetuating = power. Male power. The same is true in the Muslim world, and has been = since before the prophet accommodated the disparate, fiercely = patriarchal Arab diaspora to his vision. Mernissi elaborates: "If women's rights are a problem for some modern = Muslim men, it is neither because of the Koran nor the Prophet, nor the = Islamic tradition, but simply because those rights conflict with the = interests of a male elite." This is the rock bottom truth the veil both hides and reveals. In the = end, there is no denying the link between what has been called sexual = apartheid in the Muslim world and Islamist fanaticism. But neither = female abuse nor fanaticism bears any necessary connection to Islam. The = Islamist disease (characterized by misogyny and murderous jihad) is not = in the Quran, but in the warped souls of those who use religion and = women for their own corrupt ends. Ultimately, the fate of women in the Muslim world is far from sure. The = answers will come slowly and at great cost to the individual women who = live there. Because so much cultural baggage comes along with the = religious provisos modern reactionaries are always invoking, if the West = intervenes in women's lives, it must do so gingerly. Our role must be = minimal, because change in these cases must, for the most part, come = from within. With the help of organizations like the Human Rights Watch, = and with the guidance of venerable documents like the United Nations = Declaration of Human Rights, we can nudge and assist grass-roots women's = movements that already exist in Muslim countries and around the world = (including the Women's Action Forum, the Arab Organization for Human = Rights, and the Muslim Women's League, to name only a few. But we must do so lightly and respectfully. It's convenient to forget that many Muslim women have as hard a time = imagining living their lives in our part of the world as Western women = do contemplating what their lives would be like in the Middle East. Most = of us in the West thank whatever God we believe in that we had the = monumental good fortune to be born in countries where women enjoy = freedom of choice, whatever their manner of dress, career (or lack = thereof), family life or religious observance. It's nearly impossible = for us to see even the best that Islam has to offer as anything less = than slavery. But we cannot allow such feelings to cloud our judgment to such an = extent that we can no longer tell the difference between what it means = to free people from an oppressive culture, and to impose what we = consider to be our superior norms on them. This is not moral relativism. = In any culture, freedom is indeed the sine qua non of any life worth = living, no question, but it must be remembered that freedom includes = exercising one's right, and that includes choosing to veil oneself from = head to foot. ------=_NextPart_000_006D_01C1ADAC.618A0560 Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META content=3D"text/html; charset=3Diso-8859-1" = http-equiv=3DContent-Type> <META content=3D"MSHTML 5.00.2722.2800" name=3DGENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=3D#ffffff> <DIV>A friend sent me this and whilst I do not know where the article = was=20 retrieved from, it sheds some light on the veil.</DIV> <DIV style=3D"FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----=20 <DIV style=3D"BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A=20 href=3D"mailto:patsymed@optonline.net" = title=3Dpatsymed@optonline.net>Patricia=20 Medina</A> </DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style=3D"FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=3DVerdana size=3D2><FONT face=3DTahoma size=3D2> <P><STRONG>Veiled intentions: The burqa is a powerful symbol misused by=20 Islamists and Western feminists alike.</STRONG></P> <P><STRONG>By Norah Vincent Feb. 1, 2002 | </STRONG></P> <P>When Westerners talk about misogyny and the fate of women in Islamist = countries, they fall at once for the decoy, the surface indicator by = which all=20 fundamentalist regimes are measured and judged. It's the same decoy that = Islamists use again and again, in every country they dominate, to draw = their own=20 countrymen's attention away from the real social, economic and political = problems at hand -- problems they came to power promising to solve, but = rarely=20 do.</P> <P>That decoy is, of course, the veil, the abaya, the burqa, the chador, = the=20 jalabiyya, and every other possible version, extent or form of hijab = that women=20 are expected, and often forced, to wear throughout the Middle East and = in some=20 parts of Africa.</P> <P>The veil is the common currency of subjection, or so the West = considers it,=20 and it is the yardstick of Muslim purity, or so the fundamentalists have = conceived it. It is a pawn in the propaganda war between the major = players in=20 Samuel Huntington's clash of civilizations, or what Ian Buruma has = dubbed the=20 Occidentalists (those who demonize the West) and the Orientalists (those = who=20 demonize the East).</P> <P>Both sides see the veil as the centerpiece of their causes, but both = are=20 wrong. The Islamists are wrong because the veil isn't Islamic, and the = West is=20 wrong because the veil isn't necessarily repressive.</P> <P>The veil is a symbol manipulated both by those who would willfully = misread=20 the Quran to suit their political ends, and by neo-crusaders in the = feminist=20 free world who misunderstand its original, and some would say true, = meaning and=20 purpose. The Western feminist obsession with the burqa as symbol of = oppression=20 is everywhere. </P> <P>Take the Feminist Majority Foundation, the new publisher of Ms. = Magazine, for=20 example. </P> <P>On its Web site, it offers, I kid you not, a "Burqua Swatch," which = one can=20 purchase as a "symbol of remembrance of Afghan women" for the low, low = price of=20 $5. "This swatch of mesh represents the obstructed view of the world for = an=20 entire nation of women who were once free," according to the = foundation's ad=20 copy. Gift packs of 10 and 20 are also available.</P> <P>The veil has been an instant, though superficial, indication of = reform in=20 either direction, toward or away from the West. When Kemal Ataturk came = to power=20 in Turkey in the 1920s, for example, he banned the veil in order to = banish what=20 he saw as Mideastern backwardness, and to ally himself culturally and=20 politically with the admired West. Turkey remains the one ferociously = and=20 consistently secular government in the Islamic world.</P> <P>Likewise, during the war in Afghanistan, shedding the veil became a = kind of=20 ceremony of freedom for the country's harshly sequestered second sex. = The=20 Western press reported that the first thing many Afghan women did after = being=20 liberated from Taliban rule was to tear off their burqas, walk outside = and feel=20 the sunshine on their faces for the first time in years.</P> <P>Elsewhere, the veil has been used to quite different effect. During = the lead=20 up to the 1979 revolution in Iran, for instance, female supporters of = the=20 Ayatollah Khomeini donned the veil voluntarily as a form of protest = against the=20 reigning shah. Doing so was considered a pledge of support for the harsh = religious reforms Khomeini espoused as a means of purifying the country = of the=20 debauched Western influences he blamed for the corruption and = mismanagement of=20 the shah's regime.</P> <P>So what should we make of this symbolically loaded change of clothes? = It has=20 been said more than a few times lately that Islamist dress codes are = really all=20 a sham, and that they have nothing to do with the Quran.</P> <P>As Jan Goodwin has written in "Price of Honor," her extensive = treatment of=20 women in the Islamic world: "The severe restrictions placed on women by = the=20 Islamist movement, such as confinement or complete veiling, have no = basis in the=20 Koran or the teachings of the Prophet ... veiling the face is an = innovation that=20 has no foundation whatsoever in Islam."</P> <P>... veiling the face is an innovation that has no foundation = whatsoever in=20 Islam."</P> <P>Many among Muslim experts say the same. According to Islamic scholar = Zaki=20 Badawi, the Quran is quite simple and direct on the matter of veiling. = Women, it=20 says, should not show "their adornment except what normally appears." = Among=20 literalists, "what normally appears" has generally been accepted to mean = the=20 face and hands, and sometimes the hair, but has varied according to = local=20 custom. One thing is certain: Shrouding the face is specifically never = mentioned=20 in the Quran.</P> <P>The Quranic pronouncement most often quoted to justify the veil = (Verse 53 of=20 Sura 33) is known among experts as "the verse of the hijab," and is = related to=20 an instance in the prophet's life when several male guests had lingered = too long=20 after a wedding supper, and thereby invaded the privacy of the prophet, = who was=20 eager to be alone with his new wife. Thus, he said:</P> <P>"[W]hen ye ask of them (the wives of the prophet) anything, ask it of = them=20 from behind a curtain [hijab]. That is purer for your hearts and for=20 theirs."</P> <P>According to Moroccan sociologist Fatima Mernissi, however, this = verse is=20 often misunderstood:</P> <P>"The verse of the hijab 'descended' in the bedroom of the wedded pair = to=20 protect their intimacy and exclude a third person -- in this case, Anas = Ibn=20 Malik, one of the Prophet's [male] Companions ... The veil was to be = God's=20 answer to a community with boorish manners whose lack of delicacy = offended a=20 Prophet whose politeness bordered on timidity."</P> <P>Some of the prophet's other utterances regarding women -- which are,=20 conveniently enough, never quoted by extremists -- reinforce Mernissi's=20 interpretation of Mohammed's vision for proper, but not necessarily = rigid,=20 relations between the sexes.</P> <P>"He who honors women is honorable, he who insults them is lowly and=20 mean."</P> <P>"Treat your women well and be kind to them."</P> <P>And finally, in an admonition to both sexes, Mohammed pronounced: = "Say to the=20 believing men that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty = .. and=20 say to believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their = modesty." Clearly the onus of sexual purity falls as much on men as it = does on=20 women.</P> <P>But if the veil is not a requirement of Islam, where did it come = from?=20 Goodwin, among others, argues that far from being a religious mandate, = the veil=20 "originated as a Persian elitist fashion to distinguish aristocracy from = the=20 common masses." Mernissi supports this view, and offers historical = support for=20 the surprising notion that early on, men, not women, donned the veil. = "The=20 Encyclopedia of Islam tells us that the hijab is among other things the = curtain=20 behind which the caliphs and kings sat to avoid the gaze of members of = their=20 court."</P> <P>Nonetheless, despite what Westerners like to think, not all Islamic = women=20 revile the hijab. Many are grateful for it, and wear it willingly and = devoutly,=20 as a form of personal religious observance, a grateful submission (Islam = means=20 "submission") to God, even if it's not mandated by the Quran. Catholic = nuns and=20 Orthodox Jewish women all over the world, including in the West, do the = same,=20 and for similar reasons. What's more, they do so as a matter of = choice.</P> <P>Muslim women also often make what sounds conspicuously like a Western = feminist argument for wearing the veil, and it is a surprisingly cogent = one.=20 When they are covered, some Muslim women say, not only are they freed = from petty=20 concerns about painting their faces for male approval, they are likewise = hidden=20 from the often oppressive intrusion of the male gaze. Not such a bad = idea when=20 you think of it. After all, what Western woman hasn't sometimes wished = to be=20 invisible when walking through a gantlet of whistling construction = workers on=20 their lunch break, or working out in a coed gym when she's 20 or 30 = pounds=20 overweight? Considered in this context, the veil is, arguably, freeing, = even a=20 welcome encumbrance.</P> <P>One Iranian woman, Zahra Rahnavard, expressed this same opinion when = she told=20 Goodwin: "The veil frees women from the shackles of fashion, and enables = them to=20 become human beings in their own right ... Once people cease to be = distracted by=20 women's physical appearance, they can begin to hear their views and = recognize=20 the inner person." In practice, this isn't always what happens, but then = again,=20 in practice, Western women's "liberation" is not always what it should = be=20 either.</P> <P>As American feminists made so clear during the sexual revolution, = women's=20 fashions are an expression of, and a vehicle for, perpetuating power. = Male=20 power. The same is true in the Muslim world, and has been since before = the=20 prophet accommodated the disparate, fiercely patriarchal Arab diaspora = to his=20 vision.</P> <P>Mernissi elaborates: "If women's rights are a problem for some modern = Muslim=20 men, it is neither because of the Koran nor the Prophet, nor the Islamic = tradition, but simply because those rights conflict with the interests = of a male=20 elite."</P> <P>This is the rock bottom truth the veil both hides and reveals. In the = end,=20 there is no denying the link between what has been called sexual = apartheid in=20 the Muslim world and Islamist fanaticism. But neither female abuse nor=20 fanaticism bears any necessary connection to Islam. The Islamist disease = (characterized by misogyny and murderous jihad) is not in the Quran, but = in the=20 warped souls of those who use religion and women for their own corrupt = ends.</P> <P>Ultimately, the fate of women in the Muslim world is far from sure. = The=20 answers will come slowly and at great cost to the individual women who = live=20 there. Because so much cultural baggage comes along with the religious = provisos=20 modern reactionaries are always invoking, if the West intervenes in = women's=20 lives, it must do so gingerly. Our role must be minimal, because change = in these=20 cases must, for the most part, come from within. With the help of = organizations=20 like the Human Rights Watch, and with the guidance of venerable = documents like=20 the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, we can nudge and assist=20 grass-roots women's movements that already exist in Muslim countries and = around=20 the world (including the Women's Action Forum, the Arab Organization for = Human=20 Rights, and the Muslim Women's League, to name only a few.</P> <P>But we must do so lightly and respectfully.</P> <P>It's convenient to forget that many Muslim women have as hard a time=20 imagining living their lives in our part of the world as Western women = do=20 contemplating what their lives would be like in the Middle East. Most of = us in=20 the West thank whatever God we believe in that we had the monumental = good=20 fortune to be born in countries where women enjoy freedom of choice, = whatever=20 their manner of dress, career (or lack thereof), family life or = religious=20 observance. It's nearly impossible for us to see even the best that = Islam has to=20 offer as anything less than slavery.</P> <P>But we cannot allow such feelings to cloud our judgment to such an = extent=20 that we can no longer tell the difference between what it means to free = people=20 from an oppressive culture, and to impose what we consider to be our = superior=20 norms on them. This is not moral relativism. In any culture, freedom is = indeed=20 the sine qua non of any life worth living, no question, but it must be=20 remembered that freedom includes exercising one's right, and that = includes=20 choosing to veil oneself from head to=20 foot.</P></FONT></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML> ------=_NextPart_000_006D_01C1ADAC.618A0560--
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