OK must admit to a gut reaction of 'here we go, like we need one more man telling women what they should and shouldn't be up to.' i read an article in the Indie this morning by Yasmin Alabhai-Brown and I feel a bit muddled now. Didn't know much of the veil history and I'm still not sure it is entirely relevant. I think, as well, there is more to the sybolism of the veil than Yasmin outlines, I think those women who choose to wear it might be able to expand on that point.
Anyway, a bit of Yasmin:-
This garment offends me, and here are my reasons why.
The sacred texts have no specific injunctions about covering the hair or face. The veil predates Islam and was common among the Assyrian royalty, Byzantine upper-class Christians, and Bedouins - men and women- when sandstorms blasted their faces. Women from the Prophet's family covered themselves, it is said, to prevent harassment from petitioners. The son of Umar, a companion to Prophet Mohamed, asked his wife to veil her face. She replied: "Since the almighty has put upon me the stamp of beauty, it is my wish that the public should view this beauty and recognise this Grace unto them." Nice one, lady, and my views exactly.
In the 10th century, veils were imposed across the Middle East to diminish the status of women. Female chastity and "honour" became jealously guarded. The customs never spread far. You don't find the niqab in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia or Thailand. A witness account in Turkey in the 14th century noted that women's faces there were always visible. In 1899, a Muslim writer, Quasim Amin, wrote a treatise, "The Emancipation of Woman", in which he proved that the veil was not an inviolable part of revealed Islam. His ideas incensed conformist Muslim women, who attacked his gender, not his arguments, just as now. He inspired secularists like Ataturk in Turkey and the Shah of Iran who, too dictatorially, forbade the veil.
The Iranian revolution turned that into a cause, and the modern re-covering of women, voluntary and imposed, took off. In Iran, educated women who fail stringent veil tests are imprisoned by their theocratic oppressors. They are branded whores and beaten. It is happening in Iraq, Palestine and Algeria too. In Afghanistan, the Taliban are back pushing girls and women back into the home and full burqa. Instead of expressing solidarity with these females, sanctimonious British niqabis are siding with their foes.
Exiles from these regimes who fled to the West now find the evil has followed them. As Saba, a lawyer from Saudi Arabia, said to me: "The Koran does not ask us to bury ourselves. We must be modest. These fools who are taking niqab will one day suffocate like I did, but they will not be allowed to leave the coffin. They are choosing something they don't even understand."
The sexual signals of the hijab and niqab are even more suspect. These coverings are physical manifestations of the pernicious idea of women as carriers of Original Sin, whose faces or hair turn Muslim men into predators. In Denmark, a mufti said unveiled women asked for rape. As if to order, rape by Muslim men of white women is rising alarmingly. In truth, half-naked women and veiled women are both solely defined by sexuality. One group proffers it, the other withholds it. A young girl in a boob tube and a young girl in a hijab are both symbols of unhealthy sexual objectification. Western culture is wildly sexualised and lacking in restraint, but there are ways to avoid falling into that pit, and the veil is not one of them
The niqab expunges the female Muslim presence from the landscape and hands the world over to men. It rejects human commonalities and even the membership of society itself. The women can observe their fellow citizens but remain unseen, like CCTV cameras. They dehumanise themselves and us.
There are practical issues too. I have seen appallingly beaten Muslim women forced into the niqab to keep their wounds hidden. Veiled women cannot swim in the sea, smile at their babies in parks, feel the sun on their skin.
Women can wear what they want in their homes and streets, but there are societal dress codes. Public and private institutions should have the right to ask citizens to show their faces to get goods and services. Hoodies and crash-helmet wearers already have to. Why should niqab wearers be exempt? |
