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{"id":1178,"date":"2008-10-01T00:00:58","date_gmt":"2008-10-01T07:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/muslimahmediawatch.wordpress.com\/?p=1178"},"modified":"2014-11-03T10:48:38","modified_gmt":"2014-11-03T14:48:38","slug":"naima-b-roberts-takes-us-behind-the-veil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/2008\/10\/naima-b-roberts-takes-us-behind-the-veil\/","title":{"rendered":"Na’ima B. Robert takes us behind the veil"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a>Even though the piece is entitled \u201conline diary of a British Muslim woman\u201d there is actually very little about Robert\u2019s own life. In fact, most of the essay is Robert telling us that veiled women (whether in niqab or hijab) are just ordinary women trying to negotiate Islam and living in the West. I appreciate Robert reinforcing that point, but I didn\u2019t appreciate how she went about it.<\/p>\n

The one thing that I found so wrong with this essay is that Robert committed the same exact mistake that is committed by non-Muslims: she made Muslim women into this monolithic group. There is no diversity in Robert\u2019s view of Muslim women. We are all caught between \u201csecular\u201d society and the \u201cdunya\u201d (worldly life), we all wear the veil, we\u2019re all looking to get married and we all have lots of babies if we are married. It seems that Robert thinks you are an unobservant Muslim if you do fit these characteristics. In fact, she mentions \u201creligious Muslim woman\u201d and \u201cobservant Muslim woman\u201d in the same paragraph of her essay almost as if to say \u201cI\u2019m speaking about the real<\/em> Muslim women.\u201d It\u2019s a very limiting view of Muslim women and it\u2019s even a limiting view of Muslim women who consider themselves \u201cobservant\u201d. In fact, I wonder what Robert\u2019s definition of \u201creligious\u201d and \u201cobservant\u201d would be. If a woman observes all the five pillars of Islam but doesn\u2019t wear hijab is she non-observant? If a woman wears the veil but has no intention of having lots of children despite being married is she non-observant? Should she be the one to define \u201cobservant\u201d?<\/p>\n

Additionally, I think Robert actually did more of a disservice to her goal than a service. What is I mean is that even though she sought to normalize Muslim women, she once again otherized us. She made us seem as if we\u2019re just in a Western society instead of a part of Western society. She constantly made the point that Muslim women are negotiating space between two worlds, Islamic and Western, once again setting up the \u201cIslam\/West\u201d binary. Why is it that Muslims are only assumed to negotiate two spaces in a Western context? No one assumes that Indian Muslims, Filipino Muslims, or Chinese Muslims are negotiating two spaces even they are all minorities in their societies. This isn\u2019t to say that Muslims don\u2019t have unique customs and practices. However, all groups in every society do. Thus, I wonder why Robert felt the need to differentiate between her \u201cIslamic\u201d world and the \u201cdunya\u201d throughout her article. She does feel part of her community, even saying that chooses to \u201chave a foot\u201d in \u201cboth camps\u201d. Thus, I wish that she didn\u2019t feel the need to constantly differentiate and to let her readers know that Muslims are one group among many in a hetergenous society.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"