The Veil as Red Herring

Much is being made of veils/hijab/hegab etc. In the newspaper yesterday, it was reported in one country that wearing veils for women was just made compulsory: there was an outcry of protest. (Somalia just made beards and mustaches compulsory for men). In an article right underneath the one about compulsory veils for women was one where the man in charge had just ruled that veils were illegal: there was an outcry of protest. In a recent documentary on Egypt, the women interviewed had many different reasons for wanting or not wanting to wear the veil, and another documentary on Muslims in Michigan interviewed women who were talking about their personal choice to wear the veil. Interestingly, when one consults the Qur'an on this topic, there are only verses that refer to modest dress for both men and women, but none specify wearing a veil as a requirement for Muslim practice. When asked some local Kuwaiti women about this, they laughed and said, "It is about cultural identity. It is the way of our people." One woman made the personal observation that when a Qatari woman wore her veil pinned tight, it was for religious reasons, and when it was loose and required constant elegant adjusting, it was a cultural identity item.

Legislating costume is always difficult, and it seems that the "reasonable person" criteria often takes care of "decent dress". Of course one can still be utterly scandalized: I don't understand the increasing cleavage exposure in Ohio. But back to the Arabian Gulf: the veil seems to be about choice. An elegant, time consuming fashion choice at that! Modesty? Heavens to Betsy: some of the veils and abayas (and concomitant shoes) in the Arabian Gulf are anything but modest in their fancy cut, elaborate decoration, and extreme fashionistaness. So for people to get all bent out of shape about whether one wears a veil or not is a distraction from other topics of more pitch and merit. The more important issues involve women's participation in public life, education, and social institutions, not what they wear when they are doing it.

For example, in the Kuwaiti parliament, here are two members of parliament, equally dedicated and effective in their work. One wears hijab, the other doesn't. When I went to visit a girl's school recently, it made more sense to choose to wear a more conservative style of dress. Certainly when visiting the mosques, one dresses according to tradition, but putting a scarf on my head does not muffle my brain. There are other issues that muffle the brain, like having one's father or older brother have the last word on whether one goes on to higher education or not, or not being able to travel without male sponsorship.

I am also very interested in the fact that men's veils are not addressed with the same fervor as women's veils. These guys arrange and rearrange their veils with the same fashion sense the women do, but they are not required in the mosque the way women's head coverings are. As long as the head covering is a choice, then letting people choose does not seem to hurt anybody, but when it becomes external legislation, then there are problems. It will be interesting to see how the Somalia issue plays out where men's facial hair is now legislated.

The one thing I have issues with is the niqab, the face covering. To me, a western person in whose culture honesty is a value equated with seeing a person's face and where masks are seen as inherently duplicitous, the niqab has the cultural feel of a mask. I still find it a bit of an adjustment to have a conversation with a person who is wearing niqab. I can get over it, but at first it is like "don't stare at the niqab: oops, staring at the niqab".