I personally have started my own one-woman campaign to show more gratitude to Muslim women. I’ve written about it on my blog in two pieces that relate to veiling, one called Muslim Veil No Threat, on page one at the bottom, and the other Who Loves Ya, the current post, and I would welcome a comment from any of the bright voices commenting here. The two points I was trying to make are, first, a thanks to veiled Muslim for demonstrating modesty, and second, Christians are asked to veil, too–but in our case, it’s the men! And they should get on with it, please!

My blog is http://thewhitelilyblog.wordpress.com

[This comment has been edited to fit within moderation guidelines.]

The Philly urban style “male capri.” For any person who knows Muslim communities in Philly you might have noticed for quite awhile a large number of brothers cutting jeans short in respect to the Hadith about pants dragging in the dirt in a display of arrogance and in a desire to maintain their modesty.

Now you will see how normalized these types of pants are in the area-they are now manufactured already cut. I remember listening to a white radio host talking about how “all the brothers (meaning black dudes) in Philly like to wear their male capris” as he was not aware of the beginnings of this in Muslim circles.

My point is that a lot of brothers are not simply doing when in Rome-they are actively choosing to dress in a manner that expresses a Muslim identity and that merges Western styles just like many sisters.

Yet this always seems to be under the radar because if your vision is always fixated on that piece of cloth that the women wear on their heads how can you see how Muslim men are dressing.

“The problem is while the men wear Western clothes when out and about in the West, they or their women themselves continue to wear their cultural clothes. That is the problem. That is what gives the illusion that they are oppressed because men are doing in Rome as Romans do but the women are still living in 7th Century Arabia.”

In my opinion this is a matter of perspective. There are some people (Muslim and non-Muslim) who-no matter what you are wearing-only see the headscarf and for them this will always mean 7th Century Arabia. You could be in a chic business suit and have a silk, Italian scarf around your hair and they still think oppression. Yet, how 7th century is that?

Even for the sisters I know who wear only abaya or jilbab in their interpretation of hijab do it in very interesting and modern ways. Yet if you are convinced that any conformity to a certain code of Islamic modesty is archaic it is more difficult to see the nuances of modern Islamic dress on the part of both men and women.

@ Achelois: I appreciate your reflection that the scarf has historically been a marker of culture and class, not only of religion. It adds important layers to the debate, and totally doesn’t get discussed in most forums. I also really like your point about it being a religious choice rather than a personal choice. I tried to say something about that in my original point, but I think I ended up leaving it out because I couldn’t figure out how to say it. (Actually, I feel like I did say it somewhere, but can’t find it, so maybe I just imagined it.) Anyway, I think that’s also something really important to bring into these discussions, since for many women, it’s really not so simple that they can just say, oh, I don’t want to wear this anymore, and get rid of it. And whether or not people agree with that understanding, they’re never going to get anywhere if they don’t engage with it, rather than just telling the scarf-wearer that she should just get over it and take it off.

I disagree with you though that “feminism” (and by that I mean the problematic imperialist-type feminism that we’ve been talking about) isn’t the problem, or at least part of it. While you’re right that there are other processes going on as well (westernisation, globalisation, etc.), I think that the particular image of veil=oppressed does capture the attention of many feminists, who, in a misguided attempt to fight for women’s rights, often end up further oppressing the women that they’re trying to “help,” by acting paternalistic and assuming they know what’s right for them. So I do think that some forms of feminism are deeply problematic and even harmful in this context. This doesn’t happen in a vacuum though, and as you say, other things like westernisation and globalisation (I’m going to add racism too) also play into it.

@ Anti-Flag: Thanks for all the historical/colonial context you’ve given here. These issues are really relevant in talking about why people get so freaked out about the veil, and neither my posts nor al Yafai’s article really touched on the historical dimensions of this obsession. Great point about Fanon and Bhabha and the hijab as contradictory to the colonial project of assimilation. It sounds like you’re doing a thesis related to this topic? I’d love to hear more about what you’re focusing on.

@ coolred38: I agree with you that the hijab has a history that predates Western interaction with it… but the focus of this post is why people in the West (media, certain “feminists”, etc.) have such an obsession with it, as a (supposed) marker of difference, oppression, and so on. So that’s why the focus has been on the West “making it an issue” here. The history of the headscarf prior to this is a whole other discussion (and not one I really know enough to talk about!)