Muslim Women and the Veil For this critical review analysis paper, I have chosen to do set four of the project. I will begin to analyze and break down the fundamental themes in each of the articles from the sources provided by the professor. My examination of the texts, Islamic and Body Politics by Asma Barlas and Rethinking Muslim Women and the Veil by Katherine Bullock, will be purely academic. Both these articles share similar views of the concept of veiling and portrayal of the female body by opposing the monolithic and secular views given to the veil by the majority of the world. The view given to the veil is simple and is explicitly cited in Rethinking Muslim Women and the Veil, it is that "the popular Western notion that the veil is a symbol of Muslim women's oppression is a constructed image that does not represent the experience of all those who wear it." My stance on the subject of veiling will be in support of: those who wear the Veil (or as I will interchangeably mention it in this paper, "Hjiab" - Arabic term for head scarf) do it so by their own will and not to represent the view of oppression that has been deemed on it, also, to reiterate that the Qur'an or any other Islamic text do not support the views of oppression of women. Through my investigation of the two given articles, I will support my view with the help of three different articles that share the same type of commentary on the issue of Veiling. My inclusion of the article Eastern Veiling, Western Freedom by Nancy J. Hirschmann will bring about the realities of the Islamic practice of veiling 'in terms of the notion of freedom', another concept that is mentioned several times in resemblance is how the Westerners view the Veil as the 'ultimate symbol, if not tool, of gender oppression'. The next article I am using to support my stance is Unveiled Sentiments: Gendered Islamophobia and Experiences of Veiling among Muslim Girls in a Canadian Islamic School by Jasmin Zine. This article portrays the harsh lives that young Muslim women face when practicing Islam and veiling. The Muslim women are subject to dual oppressions of racism and Islamophobia. This article will focus on the discussion of how the young women choose to wear the Hjiab and are discriminated against when they do so (because of the secular view of oppression that is wrongfully associated with the Veil). The last article I plan on using to support my view is Symbolically Muslim: Media, Hijab, and the West by Michelle Byng. The usage of this article is more or less evidence on how the world sees veiling for Muslim women and how different parts of the world try to symbolize (through media) that the veils true meaning is of women's oppression. This collection of articles will be the ideal way of analyzing the two given articles, as well as, supporting my standpoint on the subject of veiling. To start off, I am going to discuss the topic about what the veil is and how it is defined in the articles Islamic and Body Politics by Asma Barlas and Rethinking Muslim Women and the Veil by Katherine Bullock. The first definition will be about the secular views enforced by the media to the world for the veil. This is the mainstream pop culture view of the Veil: Muslim women are subjugated by men and the veil is a symbol of that. However, Bullock opposes this view and adds in her own perspective of what the veil truly means and why she, herself a Muslim convert, wears the veil. Her decision to wear the veil was because of her faith in the religion of Islam, because it is a commandment, she should cover. Based on her own terms and free will, Bullock decided it is best for her to cover. She was not forced by her husband or any other man to wear the Hijab, but she did it as an act of piety and obedience to Islam. Bullock's view of the veil is what I agree with because she expresses her reasons of veiling and they concur with how the Qur'an wants women to be, not to be oppressed but to be an example for other women. Barlas' approach is different, she goes by identifying the women's body and how it acts as Fitna (Fitna is an Arabic word for causing problems between people, and can also be associated with causing sexual desire) for men. Barlas argues that the Veil was not meant to oppress women but to protect women from the Fitna of men and to make them more modest in their dressing, such that men do not have temptations or take action in wrongful acts such as rape. Barlas goes into further detail and mentions the traditions of what occurred during times of Veiling that date to the seventh century. The wearing of veil meant to identify women to non-Muslim men as people that they cannot/should not molest. "In seventh-century Arabia, as in many other societies of the time, the law of the veil signified which women were under male protection and which were fair game" (Barlas, 2009). This statement further distorted shows that men have power over women and the action of veiling became mandatory for women because of men's ideals. Even though, the veiling only meant protection for women who wore it. In the article, Eastern Veiling, Western Freedom, there is mention of how the power of men can alter the reality of what is meant by the Qur'an for women and veiling. Hirschmann notes that notion of freedom gives men the power to interpret religious texts and to challenge the phrasings as well. It is in the interpretations that the conditions of women's and men's lives are determined. The expression of this power differential through veiling reveals important insights about the gendered character of freedom. (Hirschmann, 1997). However, Hirschmann argues that women ultimately have a choice to veil and that choice can be affected by the power of men. But this does not promote the action of Qur'anic verses to mean that women are less superior to men and wear the hijab to show their oppression. There are no verses in the Qu'ran that directly translates into women are subjugated to the oppression of men and must wear the veil to represent this ideal. Another recurring theme in the two articles was the discrimination that women were put through when they put on the hijab. That women who veil are treated differently than women who do not veil, not in the light of understanding the women but in the form of unfairness towards women. Because of the discrimination, the hijab is again seen as a symbol of oppression and this fact is imposed on the women who wear it. The fact that people believe the veil is a symbol of oppression leads towards the discrimination, the media will instigate the people who do not wear the hijab and make them believe that it is against the will of the people who do. Bullocks writes in her article that when she first began to wear her hijab, her coworkers and the people she interacted with on a daily basis started acting differently around her. Bullock experienced very irrational explanations for the situations in her life while first wearing the hijab. In an instance, her dentist suggested that her grinding problem is caused by her scarf and she should experiment by taking it off for a while. Bullock was bombarded by strangers asking if she was happy with her married life after marrying a Muslim. The discrimination goes further, when she was told that she did not belong at an International Women's Day fair because she represents the oppression of women. This is the secular view of west that imposes on the veil and nothing else. Even though, she did not undergo any sort of restraint or discrimination that leads to oppression from the religion of Islam, the people she is surrounded by create a sense of discrimination to explain the non-existent oppression a veiled women faces. It is my belief that there is Muslim women are not restricted or do have the equal rights of every man in the religion of Islam but responsibilities differ from both genders. This does not lead to discrimination but leads to greater success cooperation between the different genders. There are several Islamic laws and some jurists have extrapolated too much from the Qur'an and its scriptures to formulate laws that restrict and discriminate against women. "Often, however, restrictions on women are based on a local community’s way of ‘being Muslim,’ that has little reference to the Qur’an, the Sunnah, or juristic teachings, or result from women’s own understanding of their role, which they then impose on others. We should always attend to how much actual practice is based upon explicit juristic rulings, and how much is based upon other factors." (Bullock, 2009) This excerpt summarizes how discrimination is formed and that there are dependencies on the treatment of people who veil and people who choose not to. It is apparent that women who veil are discriminated against more because this false sense of oppression that the veil carries. In the article Unveiled Sentiments: Gendered Islamophobia and Experiences of Veiling among Muslim Girls in a Canadian Islamic School by Jasmin Zine, Zine characterizes women's oppression is not in the form of the veil but it is by society itself. Zine describes the term to be gendering Islamophobia which Zine refers to as the central to the analysis of Muslim women and girls in Western diasporas. Zine goes further to describe this term as forms of ethno-religious and racialized discrimination leveled at Muslim women that proceed from historically contextualized negative stereotypes that inform individual and systemic forms of oppression. In laymen's terms this means that various forms of oppression (racism and sexism are processes that supported by actions) are ones that are faced by young Muslim women who first decide to veil. When asked in an interview during this research study, if the young Muslim student had a choice to wear the veil or not, would she? She answered saying that the hijab is part of her identity and that she chooses to wear it to please no one but her god (Zine, 2006). There are millions of women, who veil on choice, that are exposed to hate crimes and are discriminated against on the streets and even in the offices of work, where professionalism and equality should be the greatest trait in the workplace. In a study two sets of women were sent for job applications as a test to see the outcome. Both sets possessed identical resumes, age and ethnic backgrounds and the only difference was, one wore a hijab. In the study, the outcome was the one without the veiling got the position. Statistically 62.5% of women without hijabs are asked to fill out job applications, and only 12.5% of the women wearing hijabs are given the same opportunity. These examples further show the nature of the gendered Islamophobia (Byng, 2010). To point out explicitly, this further shows how women are not the targets of oppression because of the veil, but because of society that places the oppression on the women who choose to veil, in other words, this leads to the discrimination against the veil. Barlas, again, takes a different approach and through talks of the feminine body. She mentions that in the Qur'anic texts there are no differences in male or female sexuality. The veil is a tool that hides the beauty of the female body for modesty. Barlas states that the instruction from the Qur'an to men and women to lower their gaze because this is an act of establishing purity and modesty. In closing, I want to draw out the differences of how Muslim women who veil think and what they want to accomplish and the pre-conceived notion that the Western culture adheres by about the veil. Muslim women put on the veil because they do it so out of their own will, the western culture believes in freedom and having the right to practice one's own religion. Muslim women practice veiling openly because they feel like it is their obligation to do so and it fulfills what is asked from them in the Qur'an. Women who veil act as ambassadors of the religion and are people who can be respected for doing so. Muslim women who wear the veil are religious people who give themselves wholeheartedly to Islam and it's teachings. This does not mean being oppressed and subjugated to the will of men, but are equals of men but have different responsibilities and roles they need to fulfill. The Western culture thinks that Muslim women who wear the hijab are being oppressed by the males of Islam, but this is not the case. Every Muslim women who wears the veil can testify that she wears it based on her own free will.

References

Barlas, Asma. Islam and Body Politics: Inscribing (Im)morality Conference on Religion and Politics of the Body Nordic Society for Philosophy of Religion, University of Iceland Reykjavik, Published: June 26-28, 2009. Date Accessed: March 2013. http://www.asmabarlas.com/PAPERS/Iceland.pdf

Bullock, Katherine. Rethinking Muslim Women and the Veil. Challenging historical and Modern Stereotypes. The International Institute of Islamic thought. p11-40, Published: 2009. Date Accessed: March 2013. http://www.iiituk.com/docs/pdf/preamble-veiling-v3.pdf

Byng, Michelle D. Symbolically Muslim: Media, Hijab, and the West. Temple University, Pennsylvannia, USA. Critical Sociology 36 (1) 109-129 Published: 2010. Date Accessed: March 2013. http://journals2.scholarsportal.info.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/tmp/14724006632485714364.pdf

Hirschmann, Nancy J. Eastern Veiling, Western Freedom? The Review of Politics, Vol. 59, No. 3, Non-Western Political Thought (Summer, 1997), pp. 461-488. Published: 2007. Date Accessed: March 2013. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1408548

Zine, Jasmin. Unveiled Sentiments: Gendered Islamophobia and Experiences of Veiling among Muslim Girls in a Canadian Islamic School. Roughtledge Taylor & Francis Group. University of Massachusetts Amherst School of Education. Published: 2006. Date Accessed: March 2013. http://resolver.scholarsportal.info.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/resolve/10665684/v39i0003/239_usgiaegiacis