This post was written by Sara Khorshid Doost. You can read Part I here.
The reactions to Davoodi’s “de-jabbing” have not been as much as you’d expect. There are the usual suspects, those who praise Davoodi for the courage to free herself from the chains of the veil, some while expressing their general dislike for religion. Those who pity her, insult her, express their dismay and disbelief at a women who’s gone astray and has sunk so low.
Most prominent among these is a program broadcast on IRIB TV (the Iranian state TV channel) that is part of a series of exposés on reformists and activists that are part of the opposition (whom they refer to as “fitnah”)—particularly those who used to be active or close to the reformist government in Iran and have been forced into exile. These programs usually involve their private lives and contain dubious information.
In this program, Davoodi is portrayed as a hypocrite that observed hijab in Iran in order to grow politically, while actually not believing in it; a puppet in the hands of the Western powers. The scene of her taking the headscarf off during the Parazit interview is shown at the end of this piece, accompanied by music that is usually reserved for days of official mourning. One can feel the hegemony that Davoodi talks about in its extreme. (We have not included a translation, but the mourning scene begins at the end, at 3:37.)
It is well known that the issue of hijab is usually given much more attention than it deserves in Muslim communities. It all becomes much more sensitive and complicated in Iran, where mandatory hijab has been enforced for over thirty years. Many women have been and are humiliated and degraded in public by official “guardians of chastity” for not following what they consider Islamically acceptable at that moment, and many a woman has been looked down upon for wearing hijab in private. Thus, the issue is seldom approached constructively and objectively, due to the amount of personal emotions involved. This has been definitely reflected in the media’s over-coverage of Davoodi’s headscarf and her removal of it.
What I would have liked to hear from someone like Fariba Davoodi, who has decided to take such a personal matter into the media, was not a repetition of the clichés, while implicitly questioning all that do not follow her example and positioning herself as some sort of hero.
She could express her respect for and solitude with the women who are forced to wear hijab while still wearing it herself—removing her hijab in protest to those who cannot doesn’t do any good for other women who cannot remove theirs.
Instead, I would have liked to hear an honest and insightful account that addresses the realities and the experiences of an Iranian Muslim woman. I guess that’s too much to expect.
I am always annoyed when people use their own experiences of injustice (or whatever the case was with Davoodi) and use them to give opinions to the general population, assuming that it applies completely to them as well.
What I mean is that, many times I come across people who have had certain bad experiences with their religion (and this is not just the case for Muslims), and they “free” themselves of those previous ‘burdens’ (either by converting out or by choosing not to follow certain practices), which is fine, but what annoys me is when they grumble mightily about people who are still following those practices and comment on how suppressed or gullible they are.
Personally, I think that religion is a very private matter, and one person should not try to portray other people as gullible and weak because they chose to follow something that you don’t want to anymore.
Of course, it is good to put things in perspective and open them to debate; but don’t just look at people in a disdainful way, as if they are mindless zombies. I find that to be highly insulting and it makes their arguments no more convincing.
I find the hijab-veil debate is always under this danger, and I’m afraid Davoodi has used her own personal motives to stereotype that women who don the hijab are suppressed.
People are making the hijab a politicised matter and moving away from the religious meaning.
What I would like to see is in-depth discussions on giving girls/women education on making good choices and always believing in personal integrity. Rather than always berating them on social implications of the hijab, they should encourage them to have the confidence to make personal decisions and to not let others dismay them.
“She could express her respect for and solitude with the women who are forced to wear hijab while still wearing it herself—removing her hijab in protest to those who cannot doesn’t do any good for other women who cannot remove theirs.”
And why should she solidarize with women forced to wear hijab by keeping hers on? If she were to feel the wish to keep her hijab on, more power to her. If she doesn’t – then why no “more power to her” from your side?
Why should she continue wearing something she obviously feels reluctant to wear (expressed not by her taking off the scarf on tv, but by NOT WEARING it in her prvate life in the streets, which sparked the host’s not completely unjustified reproach of hypocrisy).
So why should a reluctant person continue something she sees as social violence just because other women cannot take it off? That would from her perspective grant the oppressing authorities still power over her and her life.
I don’t get why you reproach to her not wearing it in solidarity with her sisters in Iran – her individual will and freedom are hers, not her sisters’ in Iran nor Iranian authorities’.
I do not believe this woman used taking off hijab for her personal gain. she did not go onto the show saying “today I take my veil off”. She was (as I said not completely unjustifiedly) questioned about the ambiguity in not wearing it in the streets, but when on camera putting it on. She was pushed to be on camera the way she is off camera, one may disagree with the style of the host, but it was not her agenda coming onto the show as far as we can tell. And she looked genuinely annoyed, so the reproach is all the more unjust.
One will need to fall out of the dichotomy of black and white in “good Muslim examples” and “bad Muslim examples” on hijab blogs and political Muslimah publications as well: Being critical of religion, having become an apostate, taking off one’s hijab also publically, denouncing hijab and its ideas, criticizing hijab at the root as biologist and sexist, calling it social violence and oppression is all too easily defamated as treason or “opportunism” or other negative traits. The one defending religion or keeping on hijab while wisely only denouncing culture, and never religion, is praised on the other hand.
That is a major black and white/good and bad dichotomy I notice here and elsewhere.
Diversity in views will need to bring about more acceptance and respect for cultural Muslims or ex-Muslims who dare denounce and renounce religion itself, and not “just” culture.
There needs to be room for women acting like Davoodi and others, and the religion critic bashing needs to stop if there is true diversity and freedom of opinion and speech in Muslim communities.
No, No, No, I made it clear in the first part that from my side “more power to her” in any case. It’s the insistence that “only with” taking it off you can express solitude that I have a problem with.
“I don’t get why you reproach to her not wearing it in solidarity with her sisters in Iran – her individual will and freedom are hers, not her sisters’ in Iran nor Iranian authorities’.”
That is my point as well, I think it is a completely personal choice and should not have anything to do with any sisters or authorities anywhere.
She has talked about this extensively in other interviews as well, sometimes even giving contradictory reasons (for instance she says on Radio Farda that she wore it on camera in solidarity for women who have to wear it in Iran, as opposed to this interview that she says she did it out of respect for a particular person), so it was not only here that she talked about it because of the host’s question.
There was no bashing here, just a critique of how she chose to deal with it with regards to the media. I definitely defend her, or anybody’s personal decision to take off (or similarly, put on) hijab per se.
Sorry for the late reply, I just saw this.